Westward Part 1: Just Sully
by Ella L
Summary: This story solely deals with the past of Byron Sully and is based on the little we know from the series. Part 1 begins at his birth and explains the circumstances which caused a ten year old boy to head westward.
1. Chapter 1

The following fanfiction is based on the little that we know about the past of the character Byron Sully in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.

An extraordinary character like him must have had an extraordinary life, beyond Michaela Quinn and beyond Colorado Springs. This is the attempt to fill the gaps in Byron Sully's past.

This Fanfiction is planned as a trilogy and the following story is the first part, which naturally begins where everything begins: at the birth.

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**Westward**

**Part 1: Just Sully**

**By**

**Ella L.**

**1.**

In that night the people finally believed that they were going to die, that they would never reach the place of their dreams.

They had believed this often during the last weeks when they couldn't bear the conditions under deck anymore: the dirt, the stench, the tightness of the stockroom, because it was no more than that: a stockroom. Everywhere there were crates, barrels and heaps with old blankets and ropes. And in between huddled the people with their belongings and tried to protect themselves from the rats as much as possible. From time to time there was a thud as one of the men, stout-hearted, killed one. And of course there was the hunger and - even worse – the thirst, because the rations were very limited. And the everlasting swaying of the ship ... . Very often, people were sick.

They were torn between resignation, despair and remorse. Remorse, for having set out on this journey into the unknown at all, for having exposed their families to such stress and strain. But in this night everything was even much, much worse. An enormous storm had transformed the sea into a monster, which was threatening to devour the ship. Wailing people clung to each other down in that swaying stinking room. Crates and luggage flew about all over the place, from time to time water sloshed in through the hatch that led onto deck, and in the certain expectation of facing death that night, they regretted the fatal passage more than ever. But most of all, it was regretted by a man whose eyes were helplessly and desperately fixed upon a woman, lying on the floor between crates and blankets with spread legs, crying and half-mad from pain and about to bear a child under the most horrible circumstances imaginable. She wasn't aware of anything that was going on around her anymore. The pain made her blind and deaf. She neither knew where she was, nor how long she had been in this condition. She just knew that her child was coming about one month too early and that it wasn't supposed to be born yet and above all: not here.

Between the contractions and when she wasn't unconscious, she felt for her husband's hand and tried to build up her strength through his softly whispered words: "Hannah, I'm here. Everything's going to be alright."

She couldn't see that he doubted his own words.

When the labour had started, he had tried to find help. First in the stockroom next door, which looked just the same as their own, and where there were just as many people. Then he had gone onto deck. He had searched for a doctor or at least somebody who was capable of assisting with the birth, but the captain had turned him away harshly, telling him he had to see to this himself. There was the storm and no time to care for a new human life which was probably lost anyway. And so he had returned to his Hannah, alone, in the middle of the storm. How could they survive this? And their child ...?

"If it will be a girl, her name shall be Mary", Hannah had always announced, her face beaming. "After Mary Shelley. And, besides, it does sound good: Mary Sully. She will be great. I know that."

He had just smiled: "And if it's a boy?"

Hannah had pondered and then declared: "That depends what I'm reading at the time I give birth.

She was a bookworm. Wherever she was, she brought a book along. Even on this ship. "You know, it gives me hope, Charles", she had said.

Where was that hope now?

Someone put a hand on his shoulder, just as Hannah slipped unconscious again and he looked at her helplessly**.** An older woman with straggly, grey hair that had escaped the bun at the back of her head was bending down to him and Hannah and handed him an almost perfectly clean white linen sheet.

"Put it underneath her, she's nearly there. And here I have a clean scarf that you can wrap the baby in." When he gave her a surprised and questioning look, she said: "I had packed these things very carefully. They are memories of my mother. Never mind. If we all go down, I can't save them anyway."

Charles swallowed hard and squeezed her hands. At that moment, Hannah came round. The woman sat down behind her and held her tight.

"Go on, dear, push."

There was panic in Hannah's eyes and her breathing was rapid, but Charles was sitting in front of her and his radiant blue eyes had regained their familiar brightness. Just one look from those eyes had always given her the feeling that anything was possible. Their sparkling had convinced her that they would find a better life in the new world.

And now he was looking at her like that again.

She noticed the clean sheet underneath her, felt the firm grip of the unknown woman who supported her, saw her husband, and then, almost simultaneously with another mighty thunderclap out on the ocean, her body was seized by an equally mighty wave.__She writhed and screamed as loud as she could and pushed, and felt a pain that was incomparable to anything she had ever experienced before, and still, she kept on pushing and the only way to breathe was by her screams. She couldn't hear what Charles said, only dimly saw his beatific face. And then she pushed one last time and felt as the child slipped out of her body.

The pain was gone.

She was exhausted and drenched in sweat, but the pain was gone and only clung to her body as a mere memory. She raised her head and didn't even notice that the room wasn't swaying back and forth wildly anymore, and the storm had stopped with the last contraction. She only saw Charles with the tiny, but even so robust and not at all puny baby in his hands. And a moment later the little one started crying in protest, waving its small arms in the air. Beaming and with a tearstained face, Charles held the infant out to Hannah. And she took her child and laid it to her breast, where it immediately knew what it had to do and began to suckle hungrily.

Charles covered the baby with the scarf and kissed Hannah on the forehead.

"He will make it. A child who arrives on earth that healthy under such conditions is able to make anything. He is a fighter."

"He?" asked Hannah.

"Well, I guess, we'll have to see what you're reading these days."

She smiled and softly stroked the small, baby hair covered head of her little son; then reached out with one hand to the bag hidden beside her bed, and picked out a book: _Poems of Lord Byron._

Charles took it in his hand, and smiled in amusement. "Well, in that case", he said, "welcome to the world, Byron Sully."


	2. Chapter 2

**2.**

"Come on now, Byron!" The voice sounded sympathetic and understanding, but also slightly annoyed and urgent. It belonged to old Kate Driscoll. It had been ten years since that memorable night, when she had supported Hannah Sully with the delivery of her eldest son, and in the meantime her hair had turned from gray to almost white. She still had that forceful nature, but she was too old to take care of a boy who no longer had a family. The only thing she could do was to take him to an orphanage; that was all.

He couldn't keep on pretending that he hadn't heard her. He knew that she had to take him away … and where.

"A little boy like you can't remain alone, and I'm too old to take care of you. I'll have to go to the poorhouse myself soon enough", she had said and believed he wouldn't hear when she turned away and muttered to herself: "but before that I will do what your mother did."

_A little boy …._

He was ten years old. He had seen his little brother fall from a horse and be trampled to death; he had seen his father die and now he had also lost his mother, who hadn't been able to cope with all these strokes of fate; who hadn't known what else she could do anymore to make life bearable for them both and who was, moreover, ill, terminally ill, and therefore afraid of very soon becoming a burden for her little son. A burden he wasn't able to carry.

Now he was standing at her grave; if one could call this hole they had dug in the ground for her a grave. They had denied her the cemetery where his father and brother rested. They had thrown her into this hole and then closed it. No cross testified where her dead body lay; and where her soul had gone … in such cases people believed they knew exactly where. Certainly not to heaven. But the boy had stopped believing in heaven long ago anyway. God? His parents had prayed to him, but he hadn't heard them. And then, when she had been at the end of her strength, her faith and her hope, his mother had jumped into the Hudson River.

The night before, she had come to his bedside. He had been half asleep already, since he had helped in Finnigan's store all day long. She had stroked his brown curls and wept. Only very quietly. But that had been nothing unusual, as she had wept often. Particularly since the matter with his brother Percy. And she had coughed, and then she had left.

Only the other morning, he had noticed a letter in her handwriting next to his pillow. And a few hours later they had found her body. The river had washed her ashore.

"Byron!" Old Kate pulled him by the arm now, and, reluctantly, he followed her.

She was carrying the bag with his belongings. Some clothes mainly, a pocketknife he had inherited from his father, and a book: _Poems of Lord Byron_

He had her letter himself. He felt for it in his jacket pocket and in his mind he read it again. He knew it by heart, every line, every word:

_My beloved child,_

_I have to go now. I know that you will be very sad, but I also know, that you will understand me. You won't condemn me, as everybody else probably will, and only this gives me the strength to take this step which I must take. You will know that I haven't done it out of cowardice, but out of love. I want to have this last freedom; this last decision is to be my own. I don't want to wait until death slowly comes to meet me and lets me suffer, and you as well._

_And you are supposed to be free, too. Always follow your own free will and your heart. Be guided only by what you think is right, and not what others try to tell you. _

_You are a fighter; your father always said so. You will make it, even without us. You found your way into this life, back then on that ship, and you will find your way through life too, no matter what happens. And it will be a good life. _

_I will always be with you, and someday, I know that for a fact, we will see each other again._

_Farewell and never forget that I love you with all my heart._

_Your Ma_

"Oh, come on, boy!"

_Always follow your own free will…_

It wasn't his will to go to that orphanage, not at all, but he didn't have any other choice.

"You don't have any other choice after all." Kate seemed to read his mind. She gasped for breath;she had to pull him so much. Her hair had escaped her bun as always. She had lived with them ever since he could remember; had paid for her own upkeep as far as possible and had taken care of the children when their parents had work. His mother had told him the story of his birth and the fact that Kate was the only one who had helped them. She had come to America because her son had gone before. She wanted to be nearer to him, she had always said, but the boy had heard his parents talking about Kate repeatedly looking out for him on the streets of New York. Apparently, she believed in the impossible. But it kept her alive. And his father, who didn't believe in the impossible, namely to ever be able to leave this town that had broken him, had died.

The boy started to walk faster; he didn't want to make it any harder for her. She turned around to him gratefully and gave him a faint smile: "You're a good boy, Byron."

_Byron._ He had always detested that name. Why couldn't he have a normal name like other boys? Ben or Tom or Daniel or Steven. He never got used to the fact that people hearing his name for the first time either raised their eyebrows in amusement, grinned and made a funny comment, or, if they were more polite, tried to suppress a grin or at least turned their heads away. Of course, he knew how he had come to have his name, but that didn't make a difference. Nevertheless, he carried the momentous book with the poems of his namesake with him. He liked the poems, but just not the name.

"Thank God, it's not that far", old Kate panted, "only a few more streets, then we're there."

For the boy, it could still have been a bit further by all means. The orphanage wasn't exactly the place he was longing for. But he didn't say anything. He just walked silently beside the old woman and tried to think of nothing; not of his dead mother, not of the orphanage, not of his future, not of anything at all.

"Here we are", announced Kate eventually and her voice sounded relieved and sad at the same time. She threw him a brief glance. The boy, however, simply stared into space, resigned to his fate without showing any reaction, without the slightest emotion; only his jaw was clenched in a strange way. Kate had known him long enough to see what was going on inside him. He never talked a lot, and he rarely let his feelings out, but that didn't mean that a storm wasn't raging within his soul.

The building they were standing in front of was big and grey. It actually looked as joyless as people imagined orphanages to be. The door seemed to be quite heavy, as if it could be only opened with some effort. Kate hesitated when she stepped towards it, but then she steeled herself and rang the bell.

It took a minute before somebody opened the door. A young delicate girl in a kind of uniform. She was wearing a braid and had huge brown eyes in a narrow face with slightly hollow cheeks.

"Yes, please?" she asked and looked from the old woman to the boy and back again.

"I'd like to hand over this boy here", Kate said, "his parents are dead and nobody is there to take care of him anymore, so he belongs in an orphanage, I guess?"

The girl looked at Kate, as if she had said something very indecent, but then she stepped aside and said: "If you'll please come in?"

Kate pushed the boy forward, but stood still herself.

"I will say goodbye here", she said, and only someone who knew her very well could hear the pain in her voice.

The boy turned around, and for the first time looked right into her eyes. He understood her and she understood him. This was a goodbye forever.

He nodded his head, she squeezed his hand briefly one last time, and then he entered. But before the door was closed, Kate called out to him: "Walk your path, little Sully, be steadfast in that, you hear me?"

He looked at her once more, seriously; then he raised his head and nodded and she smiled when she saw the determination in his deep blue eyes. The eyes of the father and the determination of the then he disappeared behind the mighty door.


	3. Chapter 3

**3.**

Miss Perkins gazed at the child out of empty eyes. The boy looked headstrong. A handsome kid with bewitching blue eyes, and brown locks which fell playfully around his face and were much too long over the ears and at the nape for a boy. But he was so serious; in his facial expression was hardly anything childlike. It was as if there was a ten year old adult in front of her. He didn't wail, like many children did when they first came to the orphanage. He was completely quiet; not indifferent, not relaxed, just quiet.

Miss Perkins had seen a lot of children come and go; she had seen a lot of young fates and with the years she had taken to not being too sympathetic. It was of no use, after all. The children were alone, had to work during the day and she couldn't be a substitute for their mothers. That was just the way it was. She could give them food, a roof over their heads, a bed; sometimes she could prevent them from giving each other a wallop over the head, not more. That was all. And this serious little boy was just another child with such a fate: Byron Sully. Well, maybe his name was a bit more unusual than other's names, and maybe the whole kid was more unusual than others, but that wouldn't change anything of the fact that he would have to live the same poor life as any other kid here until he was grown-up. Or halfway grown-up. However, many ran away before they were sixteen, and a fair few of them led a life that sooner or later sent them to prison. Maybe it would be the same with him, maybe not.

"Give me your bag; I must take a look inside, in order to prevent you from smuggling weapons into the house."

The boy held his bag tightly. "These are my things."

"I know and you'll get them back, but first I have to take a look at them. For safety reasons." She reached out her hand. He didn't react. Miss Perkins didn't withdraw her hand, but waited.

"Come on, be reasonable." Her voice was like her eyes: neither friendly nor unfriendly. He didn't move from the spot and held onto his bag.

"Holly!"

The delicate girl with the huge eyes, who had been standing in a corner of the room for the whole time, stepped forward and tried to wrestle it from his hands. He resisted, and it turned out that he had a lot more strength than Holly.

Miss Perkins stood up and walked around her desk. She was tall and slender, but strong. Unceremoniously, she grasped him firmly by the arms and wrapped her hands around his wrists like two vices. Holly wrenched the bag away from him and dumped it on the desk. Miss Perkins let the boy go, went back to her desk and said: "There we are. Why didn't you do that the first time?" She didn't pay any attention to the fact that his face was glowing with rage. She took a brief look at the clothes and then she found the pocket knife.

"I'll have to confiscate this."

The boy didn't understand that word, but he clearly understood that she wanted to take it away from him.

"That was my father's. Give it back!" he shouted at her furiously.

"Sorry. Weapons are not allowed. It's too dangerous", she replied coolly, ignoring his outburst.

"That's not a weapon. It's a pocket knife", the boy insisted.

"A knife is a knife", Miss Perkins said quietly and let the pocket knife disappear in a drawer of her desk. Then she discovered the book and picked it up. Raising her eyebrows in astonishment, she leafed through it.

"Can you read?" she asked.

"Yes, I can; is that dangerous too?" the boy retorted rebelliously.

She raised her eyes to him, and for the first time, her lips twisted into a tiny, lopsided smile.

"Some people would answer 'yes' to such a question", she said in a soft voice, "but not me."

She held the book out to him and reverted to her functional, unmoved tone as she took the place behind her desk again: "You can take your things back now. Holly will take you to your dormitory, tell you the rules here in the house and show you everything. We'll have dinner later; then you will meet the other boys. And before you ask: yes, there are girls too, but they are separated from the boys of course. That's all for the moment. We'll see each other again as soon as you start attracting negative attention, so I hope that won't be the case very soon."

After these words she turned her interest to some papers on the desk.

Holly helped the boy to stow his things in his bag again and then she drew him by the arm outside.

"Come along", she said, and led him through a long hallway with a staircase at its end. He followed her upstairs to the floor just below the roof, where it was stuffy and dark. At the end of the staircase, right at the beginning of another long hallway, Holly opened a door.

"This is your dormitory", she said and let him enter. It was a large, long, outstretching room with at least thirty single beds, or rather narrow, low plank beds.

Holly moved towards a bed that was not far away from the door and obviously not occupied.

"You will sleep here. You can put your things at the head. You will only spend the night in the dormitory. During the day, you will be over there at the cloth factory."

He put his bag at the head-end of his bed and looked around. The room looked miserable but tidy. He could imagine that the boys didn't keep things in order like this of their own account.

"Mr. Talbot is the guardian of this dormitory; he doesn't accept disorder, and also no disobedience or quarrels", Holly declared straightaway. "He is also responsible for you boys when you work at the factory; so better stick to his orders and try not to give a bad impression. If you work hard and don't bother him, you won't get into trouble. Believe me, that's better. Better here than in the workhouse, you see?"

She went towards the door and indicated for him to follow her. "We'll go to the dining hall now, it's almost dinnertime anyway."

"How long have you been here?" the boy asked suddenly. She turned around to him, threw him a gloomy look and said: "You also shouldn't ask too many questions, by the way; they just don't like that here." She went downstairs, and he followed her three floors down.

Before she opened the door to the dining hall, she hesitated and said: "I've been here forever; since I was two years old, and now I give Miss Perkins a hand, help in the kitchen and all. Various things."

"Have you never wanted to go away?" the boy asked spontaneously.

She gave him a short glance from her huge eyes and then shook her head vehemently. "No. Never." She quickly opened the door.

They entered a big hall with several long tables and one smaller one, right next to the entrance. There was a second entrance at the opposite end of the room, and another door to one side. A bell was ringing somewhere right at that moment, and a few moments later children were storming through the opposite door into the hall.

"Better hurry to look for a seat", Holly said quickly to the boy and then made her way to the small table herself. Miss Perkins entered too, as well as some other men and women he didn't know yet.

He was supposed to look for a seat; but where? All other children apparently knew where they wanted to go. Or did it only seem so? They all were in such a hurry that a fixed seating plan wasn't very likely. The boy rushed to a table close by and sat down quickly on a seat that wasn't yet occupied. But soon enough somebody pushed him in the back, hard.

"Hey, get up, that's my seat", a tall, stubble-haired red-head snarled at him. His face was as broad as a pancake and the corners of his mouth hung down slightly, but not like the expression that was already set into the skin of the faces of some adults, rather pinched. He stared at the new boy, and it was quite clear that he stood for no contradiction.

They were observed. The shifting of the chairs got fainter, the movements slower, and all eyes were fixed upon the red-head and the new one. At the small table of the staff, however, nobody seemed to pay any attention to them.

The boy didn't react, but folded his arms in front of his chest and stayed where he was.

"Haven't you heard, kiddo?" The redhead grabbed the brown locks of the new boy and jerked his head back brutally. But in the very next moment the attacker felt a heavy blow to the middle of his nose, and a warm liquid poured over the lower half of his face. Tears of pain welled up in his eyes, and he could barely see the boy, who had gotten up and stood in front of him, fists still clenched.

"What's going on here?"

Immediately, silence reigned at all tables, even though the man who had asked the question had neither raised his voice nor given it a particularly menacing tone. He was tall and thin and wore glasses on his nose, over which he looked from watery blue eyes. His hair was dark blond and thinning, his skin pale. His hands were clasped behind his back.

"So, you are the new one", he said to the boy. "Miss Perkins has already informed me that you've come to my group." And without turning his eyes away, he said in one breath: "Jackson, go and ask Dr. Tuttles to pack your nose."

He made a pause, in which he observed the boy thoroughly for a while.

"That was quite a blow", he said then, without changing the casual chatty tone. "You don't look that strong actually." Another pause. The boy was aware that the man, who must obviously have been Mr. Talbot, didn't expect an answer and so he remained silent. He didn't like this man, not in the least. His indifferent reaction didn't correspond with the situation at all. And it was clearly perceptible that the other children were afraid of him, for whatever reasons.

"What's your name again?" Mr. Talbot finally asked and this time there was definitely something lurking in his voice.

The boy took a deep breath and looked straight into his eyes: "My name is Sully."

The man raised his eyebrows and replied almost amused: "Sully? Just Sully?"

"Yes, Sir, just Sully. "


	4. Chapter 4

**4.**

Mr. Talbot didn't sleep in the same dormitory; he had a small side room for himself. Sully was glad about that, because the man caused a highly unpleasant atmosphere, although he hadn't done anything awful so far.

The red-haired boy whose nose Sully had broken, Jackson, belonged to another dormitory; so that was positive as well, if there was anything that could be called 'positive' at all.

"Lights out in five minutes", Mr. Talbot shouted from his room into the dormitory; then he disappeared again. The boys hurried to put on their nightshirts – everyone wore the same – and to crawl underneath the thin blankets. Sully just did as all the others did. He didn't talk to anybody and none of the other children seemed to feel like talking to him.

"Hey, Gordon", one of the older boys suddenly whispered to Sully's neighbor, "do you mind changing beds?"

The addressed boy didn't hesitate for a second. "Not at all", he murmured with a sidelong glance at Sully, took his things and moved a few beds further along, where the other boy had been before.

Sully observed his new neighbor out of the corner of his eye. This could only mean new trouble. Under the blanket, he tensed his body and positioned himself so that he was prepared for an attack at any time. But the other boy just lay down without saying or doing anything.

He was probably only a few years older than Sully, maybe twelve or thirteen, but he was a lot taller.

Mr. Talbot appeared in the doorway to his room once again. Everybody kept completely silent. He walked through the entire dormitory between the beds, let his eyes wander back and forth, turned out the light on the far side, went back again and turned out the light next to his room, too. Without saying good night, he closed the door.

The dormitory was enshrouded in complete darkness now, but Sully kept his eyes wide open as he tried to adapt them as quickly as possible. Very scanty moonlight came from outside, and so he was able to recognize at least the rough outlines of his surroundings after a short while. He listened to the breathing of the other boys; most of them seemed to have fallen asleep at once, but he still expected the attack of the boy in the next bed, since he couldn't make out clear sounds of respiration from him.

Would it be like this every day now? That he was bothered by other boys, and he had to defend himself?

'You are a fighter', old Kate had said to him. Yes, maybe he was. But actually he didn't want to fight. He wanted to be left alone. He didn't want to have quarrels and trouble. He didn't want to be here.

"Sully, is that really your name?" A sudden whisper reached his ear. Curious, but not unfriendly. The boy in the bed next to him had propped himself up on his elbows and looked over to him.

"Yes", Sully answered and couldn't hide his astonishment.

"Good name", the boy said, and reached out his hand: "I'm Daniel."

Sully straightened up slightly and shook Daniels hand.

"That was pretty big today. The thing with Jackson, I mean", Daniel said appreciatively. "Because Jackson thinks he's is the big cheese here and that everybody has to dance after his pipe."

"Really?" Sully didn't know what to say. He was still surprised at the friendliness of the other boy.

"I believe, now, all the others think you're a sort of new Jackson. You know, like: the man who ousts a king from the throne becomes king himself."

"And you?" Sully asked, now equally interested in the other boy. Daniel laughed softly.

"If I thought the same, I wouldn't be here. I don't want to have anything to do with such types. Not if I can avoid it. And I think you're a bit like that too: not afraid to defend yourself, but apart from that you wanna be left alone."

Sully grinned: "Right", he said, "that's me. How do you know?"

Daniel shrugged:"No idea; I'm probably smarter than the others." He laughed again to show that he wasn't serious.

"How long have you been here?" Sully asked, interested.

"Don't know exactly. One day my father set off. Wanted to search for gold, like so many. And my mother was run over by a coach. So I came here. A few years ago. Don't know. Miss Perkins said my father would surely search for me when he came back, but either he hasn't searched or he hasn't come back. I've never heard from him, anyhow. Well, who cares?"

"Who cares?" Sully asked, dumbfounded, "are you not mad at your father?"

"Not really", Daniel replied calmly, "I can even understand him. Some day, I wanna search for gold too, you know?"

"But you wouldn't abandon your kid, would you?"

"Nah, that's why I don't wanna have kids in the first place. If you don't have anybody, you can't abandon anybody, right?"

"Well, yeah … right", Sully said hesitantly, but he found this to be a sad prospect. His own father would never have behaved like that. He _hadn't_ behaved like that. Without his wife and the two kids he probably would have made it to the west, and he could have tried to make his fortune there, but he had refused to abandon his family. He had rather perished instead

Sully suddenly heard steady and quiet breathing from the bed next to him. Daniel had been fallen asleep. And the certainty and surprising pleasure of having found a friend in this place allowed him to find peace, too, and he finally surrendered to his exhaustion.

----------------------------------------------

He had no idea how long he had been sleeping, when somebody dragged him up mercilessly by the arm pressing a hand on his mouth at the same time. The boy tried to come around and remember where he was. In panic, he tried to lash out with his arms in all directions, tried to wrestle himself from the hard grip, but it was hopeless. He couldn't see his attacker, but he could feel that he was much taller and stronger than he.

Without a chance of resistance or even the possibility of crying out for help, he was effortlessly dragged out of the room to the dark hallway outside, and then past the other dormitories. At the very end of the hallway there were a few stairs which led upwards. Sully had thought they were already right beneath the roof, but apparently there was another room further above. A room that was even stuffier and darker than the others. It was hot inside. Sully felt as if he couldn't breathe His attacker threw him to the floor and shut the door. The sound of a key could be heard. And then there was silence. Sully didn't even dare breathe, in order to listen out for something, any sound that would tell him that he wasn't alone in the room.

Suddenly, the flame of a match glowed and, for a second, illuminated the watery light blue eyes of a man who bent down and lit a lamp with it. The light wasn't very bright, but Sully could now recognize who was standing in front of him: Mr. Talbot.

"Sully, right?" he asked and didn't sound in the least as casual and indifferent as he had before in the dining room.

Sully nodded.

Talbot crouched down before him and held the lamp right in Sully's face, and he spoke with a low, menacing voice:

"Did you really think you would get away just like that? Breaking another boy's nose and nothing happens? Did you really think so?"

Sully didn't dare to reply anything, since the man in front of him had an almost crazy look in his eyes and seemed to be just waiting for a chance to beat him.

"Answer!" Mr. Talbot insisted however, "did you think so?"

"I …", Sully started, but in the next moment the back of the man's hand hit him hard in the face.

"Yes or no?" Talbot asked unmoved.

The boy wiped blood from his lip which immediately began to swell. He was terrified. Nobody knew where he was, if anyone cared at all. And this man was obviously a sadist or insane or both.

When he didn't reply the next blow hit him from the other side.

"Yes or no?"

Sully clenched his teeth and tried not to cry. _Don't cry and get weak._

Talbot laughed.

"You're a real tough guy, huh? But trust me, I'll cut you down to size."

A new blow to the boy's face.

"There were others before you who thought they could get away with anything …."

Another blow.

"… they could impress the other boys and make me look like an old fool."

His face was distorted with rage now, when he hit again.

"I broke them all. All."

Sully fell to the side, holding his arms protectively over his head. Blood was running from his mouth and nose. His right eye was swollen. Mr. Talbot stood up and kicked him in the side.

"You little rat, you will get to know me; you will never forget how to behave again, do you hear me?"

Sully barely listened to his words anymore. He bent on the floor and just wanted this horror to stop.

He heard Talbot breathing heavily, but then the lamp was extinguished and the door was unlocked.

"I'll give you a few days to think about your lesson." Then the door slammed shut and the key turned twice from outside.

Sully was left in the dark room, bleeding and alone.


	5. Chapter 5

**5.**

Two whole days later the door was opened again.

In the dim light of the lamp in the hallway, the boy could recognize Holly. She remained in the doorway, almost as if she didn't dare come any nearer to him.

"You can come out", she said, with an insecure voice. The boy got up slowly. His face and hair were covered with dried blood and sweat.

"Are you all right?" asked Holly. He nodded.

"Come along." She led the way along the hallway, but didn't turn right when they came to his dormitory; rather she went downstairs and beckoned him to follow her. He did so without thinking about it.

Two floors lower, she turned left and went through a door that led into another small hallway. She headed for the last of four doors, opened it, beckoned the boy again, and closed the door behind him.

They were in a tiny room, obviously Holly's chamber. She closed the curtains across the small window, lit a lamp and said: "Sit down." Then she handed him a plate with some food and also a glass of water to drink.

"But don't tell anyone, you understand? Mr. Talbot had better not know that I helped myself in the kitchen."

Sully didn't know what to say. He sat down on the chair, first quenched his thirst, and then pitched into the food.

"Thank you", he said softly, when he had finished.

Holly nodded, no smile on her lips. She seemed to never smile. She looked as if she didn't even know how to smile.

"Wash your face", she said "here's some water and a towel." She pointed to a corner in the small room. After he had cleaned himself, she took a close look at him, nodded again and opened the door.

Again, she walked ahead and Sully behind her. This time they went upstairs and then directly to his dormitory. Holly threw a quick glance into the almost completely dark room.

"Go", she then said curtly.

Sully pushed himself past her and whispered once again:"Thank you, Holly."

"Just go", she merely answered. She waited until Sully had found his bed and lain down, so that the light from the hallway could show him the way, then she closed the door as quietly as possible.

The door at the other side of the room was closed as well. Certainly, Mr. Talbot hadn't noticed anything. Strange, because he had certainly given Holly the order to release Sully from his prison. She had never done it high-handedly.

The only sound in the dormitory was the steady breathing of the other boys. None of them had noticed that he was back. He had probably not even been missed.

The boy was afraid to fall asleep. Of course, this had been Talbot's intention: to intimidate him once and for all, to leave him with an everlasting fear. Sully clenched his teeth in anger. _No, Mr. Talbot I won't do you that favor. I won't let anybody intimidate me. Neither Jackson nor you._

What could Talbot do to him? Sully had lost his father, his brother, his mother and his home. What could be worse? Talbot could lock him away in that hole forever. So what?

-------------------------

"Sully?"

The sound of a surprised and friendly voice reached his ear. He had actually fallen asleep eventually during the night and his sleep had been so deep that he was completely confused, and only with great effort could he open his eyes to recognize to whom the voice belonged.

It was Daniel. Sully had totally forgotten about him during the last two days, when he was locked up.

"Where have you been? I was wondering when you weren't in your bed in the morning. And nobody knew anything."

"Talbot knew", said Sully and sat up in his bed. Daniel saw the bruises on Sully's face and the blood on his nightshirt and was taken aback.

"What happened?" he asked, knitting his eyebrows, but in the same moment Mr. Talbot walked through the door.

"Come on, boys, if you don't hurry you won't get breakfast before work. So get a move on and get out of your beds."

Sully stood up and followed Daniel and the others into a kind of wash room, where he washed the dirt and the rest of blood from his skin as thoroughly as possible. Then he went back into the dormitory and could finally get rid of that dirty and bloodstained nightshirt, and dress in his relatively clean clothes.

"Come on, tell me", Daniel whispered to him, "what did Talbot to you that you look like this **…,** and where were you?"

"Later", Sully just replied curtly. He didn't want Talbot to see that he was talking to one of the boys, and he also didn't know whom of the others he could trust.

Sully learned his lessons exceptionally fast.

At breakfast he sat next to Daniel, but they talked only about harmless things. For example, about the work of the boys at the cloth factory.

"By the way, the girls work there too. Gordon, the boy who first had the bed next to you, has a sister who is already fifteen." Daniel winked to Sully and grinned.

"So?" asked Sully.

"Gordon knows where the girls' changing room in the factory is." Daniel kept on grinning.

"Hey, Gordon", he suddenly turned to the boy who sat a few seats away, "I believe Sully needs a little cheering up. Do you think we could go and see your sister today? At the end of the shift?"

"Sully?" Gordon asked suspiciously, and threw an insecure look at the newcomer.

"Oh, come on, Gordon! Sully's alright. So, how about it? I'm sure you would love to see your sister again, right?" Daniel's eyes sparkled with a funny mixture of innocence and mischievousness. Now Gordon couldn't suppress a grin either. "Okay, I will see."

Sully still didn't understand a word, but Daniel gave him a friendly push in the rips and laughed.

-----------------

The cloth factory where the children of the orphanage had to work wasn't very far away. It was approximately a fifteen minute walk which they undertook in formation, accompanied by Mr. Talbot and the other guardians.

The factory was a huge, gray building with an imposing iron gate, through which the workers streamed.

The boys took a left turn just inside the entrance and walked along a long, broad hallway.

There were several doors on the right hand side and sometimes they could hear a lot of noise behind them.

Sully had no idea what he had to do. He relied on Daniel and Gordon and trotted after them. From time to time, a group of the boys followed their guardians through one of the doors and disappeared. Mr. Talbot's group walked to almost the end of the hallway. Then they came to a passage that led into a large hall. There were enormous heaps of cotton stored inside.

"All right then", Mr. Talbot just said. "Tell the new one what he has to do", he added, without even looking at Sully. "You're supposed to be through half the cotton by this evening. Don't be sloppy and don't dawdle, understand? Otherwise you can start again, right at the beginning, and work through the night." With those words he left the room.

The boys put their jackets aside and started to work immediately.

"We have to clean the cotton", Daniel explained to Sully. "It has to be clean so that it can be processed further."

Sully watched the other boys as they bent over the cotton, kneeling, and freed it from every single particle of dirt, removed the rests of the seed capsules and selected colored or waste parts of the cotton with their bare hands. It was endless and mind-numbing work.

"Come on, let's go over there." Daniel pulled Sully to a place where they could have a quiet chat.

"So?" Daniel started, threw a pile of cotton to Sully, and drew an empty container towards them in which they could store the cleaned material.

"What did Talbot do to you?"

Sully looked around to make sure that none of the others could hear them, and then he told Daniel the story.

The older boy was shocked and enraged.

"You mean, he left you alone there, just like that? For two whole days? You could have kicked the bucket." Sully shrugged and cleaned the cotton on his knees without looking up.

"The bastard!" Daniel had stopped his work. "He's done such things before. I mean, punishing boys, when they didn't expect it. He is very creative. Miles, for example, one of the boys in our dormitory, he is always hungry and never has enough. Well, he is like he is. A few months ago, he picked up some food from the staff table. Talbot noticed. At first, he just took it away from him and didn't make a big fuss, but then, one day later, he came to our table and said Miles should learn to value the food he got here. Then he had to get up and go and stand at the head of the table. He wasn't allowed to eat anything, but just to watch. At breakfast and at dinner. And he didn't get anything here either. And there are more examples. In any case, one thing's for sure: you'd better not get caught by Talbot. At anything."

"What about Miss Perkins?" asked Sully.

"What about her?" Daniel asked in reply, "she is the director.

"Yes, of course, I know that. But … doesn't she talk care of such things?"

"No, why should she, when she has people like Talbot?"

"But she didn't seem to be as bad as he is", Sully said, and now Daniel shrugged: "Bad enough if she lets him do such things."

"Maybe she doesn't know", said Sully.

"She doesn't wanna know, trust me. Makes her job easier."

They were silent for a while and worked on the cotton.

Suddenly, Sully said: "I'm getting away from here."

"What?" Daniel looked at him, taken aback.

"I'll run away. But first, I must get back my knife."

"Are you crazy?" Daniel asked.

"It was a gift from my father; I won't leave it here."

"I don't mean the knife", Daniel pulled a face, "you can't run away."

"Why not? Has nobody ever done that?" Sully replied.

"Sure", Daniel said and gave a short laugh, "but not a ten year old."

"I don't mind. I'll go", Sully said, and looked straight into Daniel's eyes, "will you come with me?"

Daniel let out a surprised gasp, but then he saw that his new friend was totally serious.

"And where do you wanna go?" he asked.

"Westward", Sully said without any hesitation, "where my father always wanted to go."

"But I wanna search for gold", Daniel said and the corner of his mouth twisted almost imperceptibly.

"Yeah, we can do that", Sully said, as if it were the most natural thing on earth that two boys, one ten and one twelve years old, should head west to search for gold.

"Okay then", Daniel grinned and stretched out his hand out to Sully, "westward!"

And Sully agreed: "westward!"


	6. Chapter 6

**6.**

In the evening, Sully lay on his bed, dreadfully tired yet excited at the same time. The work at the cloth factory had been terribly strenuous. And tedious. Even if he clearly preferred it over other kinds of work there. Daniel had told him about jobs other boys and girls had to do. Some of them worked at the dye works, where the steam made it difficult to breath and they were also in danger of being poisoned, as Daniel had said. And then there were the children, mostly the younger and smaller ones, who had to do the cleaning; that was: taking out scraps of material and waste by crawling under the machines. While they were still running. Daniel had told him that there had been an accident just a few weeks ago. A little boy had crawled under a machine and his foot had become caught. When the machine had finally been stopped, it was already too late. Daniel refrained from describing the details to Sully, but his face was distorted with repugnance, so Sully didn't want to hear further particulars anyway.

He stretched out in his bed and tried to find a position that would help to reduce the strain on his tired back. Talbot walked between the rows of beds and threw searching looks left and right. Then he put out the light and disappeared – as usual without a word - into his room.

At once, Daniel turned to Sully.

"So, do you think you will dream of Harriet tonight?" He chortled. Sully was glad that it was dark, because he blushed to the roots of his hair.

The boys – Gordon and his friend Elias, Daniel and Sully himself – had pretended to have to go to the latrine after the end of work in the evening, but had taken a detour to the girls' changing room instead. Most of the girls worked at the dye works, and therefore they wore special overalls which they changed out of before they returned to the orphanage. And because they were literally thirsty for fresh air, they would always open the window at least a crack, no matter how cold it was outside. The four boys had positioned themselves in front of this crack and observed Harriet, Gordon's sister, and three or four other girls whose shape was already similarly mature. Elias and Daniel had had broad grins on their faces but Gordon had been rather reserved.

"Well, it's my sister, you know", he had explained with a hint of irritation, and had stepped aside, giving Sully a better view. The latter had never seen a naked woman in his life, and these girls could be taken for women by all means. In any case, they had everything that was needed.

"What do you say?" Daniel had whispered to him and given him a friendly slap on the back. Thank God he hadn't really seemed to expect an answer, because Sully hadn't known what to say. Neither had he known what to think. What he had seen had bewildered him, and at the same time he had liked it in a strange way …, which bewildered him again. He had wanted to look away and look at them at the same time. Without a doubt, it was interesting …

So, Sully lay in his bed, blushed at Daniel's question 'do you think you will dream of Harriet tonight?' and wasn't able to hold back a grin.

"Or … one of the others?" Daniel persisted, and Sully burst out laughing, however smothered the sounds quickly with his blanket. Daniel hid his face in his pillow too, while his body was revealingly shaken by choked laughter. When they had half calmed down, and stared into the darkness, Daniel suddenly asked: "Do you still plan to run away?"

"Sure!" Sully said with total matter-of-factness.

"Well", Daniel said, half serious and half jokingly, "it might have been that Harriet had changed your mind." He let out a chortle again.

"No, she hasn't", Sully said, determined. Daniel's eyes rested for a while on the dark silhouette of his younger friend. He had never met a boy like him. He sounded thoroughly convinced. Daniel hesitated before he asked the next question; he didn't want to look like a sissy.

"Aren't you … are you not at least a bit … I mean … scared?"

Now it was out, the word all boys of their age were afraid to use, at least when they were talking to other boys. None of them would have ever admitted to being scared when it came to cleaning the working machines at the factory, or that they were scared of Mr. Talbot and his sanctions. But this time Daniel couldn't hold back.

Sully turned his head towards him.

"I don't know", he said, "I just know that it is the only thing I want to do, you see?"

Daniel nodded. Yes, somehow he understood. If there was only one thing in the world you wanted to do, everything else didn't matter anymore.

"So, when are we going to do it?" he asked.

"You will really come with me?" Sully asked back.

"Sure thing. I've said so." Sully could practically hear Daniel's broad grin. In this moment he knew that they would remain friends for all of their lives.

"As soon as possible", he said.

"And how do you wanna do it?"

One of the other boys moved in his sleep and mumbled something. It was too risky to make plans here. They couldn't be certain who of the others might still be lying awake and could possibly catch something.

"We'll discuss it at work tomorrow", Sully said.

"Okay", Daniel said. "Good night, Sully."

"Night, Daniel." And a few minutes later both had fallen asleep.

---------------------

Like the day before they worked in that large hall. New heaps of cotton had piled up and needed to be cleaned. Daniel and Sully sat together and dutifully separated the white soft cotton from any kind of dirt. But their fingers did the work totally mechanically. Their minds were occupied with completely different things.

Sully's idea, to make off either on the way to the factory or on the way back, didn't meet Daniels approval.

"Those are the times when they keep an extra eye on us, man. When do you think most kids have run away? Or at least tried to? Exactly: on their way to the factory or on the way back. Believe me, that's not very original. And besides, Talbot is there. No chance to get away."

"What then? What do _you_ suggest?" Sully sounded grumpy. It seemed to him that there was hardly another possibility.

"We should do it sometime at night", Daniel said.

"At night?" Sully asked incredulously, "haven't you told me that everything is locked up at night?"

"The exits, yes, and the rooms on the first floor: the kitchen, the dining hall and so on, Miss Perkins room and, of course, the entrance to the girls' section."

"That's everything", repeated Sully.

"The windows aren't locked", said Daniel.

"The windows? Yeah, but we can't get to them, because the rooms are locked up."

"Not on the second floor", Daniel shrugged.

"On the second floor?" Sully echoed again. "And which of the windows are you thinking of?"

Daniel wasn't thinking of any, since every window was in a room where someone lived. On the second floor were mainly the rooms of the personnel and some storerooms, but those didn't have windows.

Daniel bit his lip, wrinkled his brow and was just about to admit that his idea had been only a general and not a very thought-through one, when Sully softly spoke, seeming to be surprised himself: "Holly!"

"Holly?"

"Yes, Holly. There's a window in her chamber."

"Yeah, but she's in her chamber herself, too."

"She will help us", Sully said firmly. "She gave me something to drink and eat after she had released me from that cell. And she did it secretly. She had secretly organized that food. Understand? She's all right."

"I'm not saying that she isn't all right", Daniel said skeptically, "but to help two kids to run away is something else. She could be fired if it gets out."

"I don't get why she stays here anyway", Sully mumbled stubbornly, however he stared at the cotton in his hand and it couldn't be overlooked that Daniel had shaken his conscience.

"What else can she do?" Daniel asked. "She has always been here."

"Exactly, that's the point", Sully insisted. "Can you imagine spending your whole life in an orphanage?"

"No, of course not, but …"

"There you are! But Holly is supposed to do that?"

"She obviously wants to."

"How can you know that?"

Daniel sighed and rolled his eyes. It was difficult to argue with Sully. When he got something into his head, if was almost impossible to talk him out of it; so much had he already comprehended about his new friend.

"So, you really wanna ask Holly to help us", Daniel asked once again.

Sully pondered for a brief moment, but then he nodded: "There's no other way."

Daniel sighed again and said: "Then we have to find a way to talk to her without arousing suspicion."

"Shouldn't we just go to her at night and ask her to let us climb out of the window?" Sully asked.

"Are you crazy?" Daniel shouted so loudly that Gordon and Elias, who sat nearest to them, looked over.

Daniel noticed it and said again loudly to Sully: "Are you crazy? To leave the cotton in this state? This is not nearly clean. When Talbot sees it …!"

"Hey, Daniel, don't be that strict with him", Gordon shouted, "he just don't know better yet."

"Yeah, you're right, Gordon, sorry", Daniel grinned apologetically.

They kept on working silently for a while until they could be sure that the others were minding their own business again and were absorbed in their own conversations.

"We'll try to find an opportunity to talk to Holly", Daniel decided then, "I don't think that she'll betray us, but if she says 'no' we'll know where we stand."

"All right", Sully murmured, and then he shrugged and said: "First I have to get my knife back anyway." Daniel was able to control himself only at the last second, in order not to shout as loudly as before. Instead he hissed angrily: "Have you completely lost your marbles, Sully?"

"I will get it back, I told you that already. It's the only thing I have from my father. You can't expect me to let it rot in Miss Perkins' desk drawer."

Daniel snorted. "Then tell me how you think you can get at it."

"Don't know yet", Sully simply answered. "I'm going to think of something."

Daniel frowned. From then on they worked silently or talked about other things; trivialities mostly, and mainly about the other boys. Daniel told stories about Jackson and some others, and also about other guardians, who were as terrible as Talbot in some cases.

The day went by in this way, slowly and agonizingly, and in the evening the pain in Sully's back was as bad as the day before. The boys dragged themselves home, went to the dining hall and later to their dormitories. It would go on like this day in, day out, until they were finally old enough to leave the orphanage.

Sully, however, had different plans. No particularly concrete ones, but at least as concrete as they could be when a ten year old made them. But before he could put them into action, he had to fetch his knife. He just had to. It was not simply some knife; it symbolized the memory of his father and his dreams, and it was his –Sully's – first acid test. If he couldn't manage to get back the knife, he might as well stop everything; then he wouldn't be able to make it to the west either. If he failed at this first hurdle, he would fail at everything.

No matter what it might cost, no matter what sacrifice he had to make …

And suddenly he knew what he had to do to get to his knife, to get to Miss Perkins' room.

He knew what he risked, but it was the only way.

And when everyone else had finally fallen asleep in the dark dormitory, and Daniel bent over to him and softly whispered: "So? Do you know now what you have to do to get at the knife?" Sully said: "Yes, I know now."

"And what?"

"I will grass on Talbot."


	7. Chapter 7

7.

The next morning, Daniel tried repeatedly to talk Sully out of his plan.

"That's pure insanity, Sully. Talbot will kill you. You're gonna pay for it, you know that."

"There's no other way. How else am I supposed to get to Miss Perkins' desk?" Sully whispered back as they discussed it in the wash room.

"And how are you gonna get to Miss Perkins' desk while she is sitting behind it?"

"The main thing is that I'll be inside her room, and then I'll see what happens", Sully replied stubbornly.

"But if it doesn't work, you'll have Talbot at your neck for nothing."

Sully just shrugged and then put on his clothes without saying another word. Daniel knew that he wouldn't be able to talk him out of his plan. Sully was determined and nothing in the world could change his intent.

When they were dressed, they followed the other children to the dining hall. The guardians and Miss Perkins had just sat down at their table and started to take breakfast. Sully decided to wait until Miss Perkins was finished. He ate scarcely anything himself, because in spite of his determination, he was nervous and fully aware of what it meant to report Mr. Talbot to Miss Perkins. He didn't need Daniel to tell him about the consequences, when he had experienced firsthand exactly what this man was capable of.

Miss Perkins had put her cutlery aside and was about to stand up. Sully got up as well and all eyes turned towards him in surprise. Before Miss Perkins had noticed, he stood in front of her and said politely: "Please, Miss Perkins, may I talk to you? It's important."

Miss Perkins was visibly astounded, but as the boy gave a very tense and worried impression she nodded, then said exactly what Sully wanted to hear: "Come to my office."

She led the way and Sully followed, without looking back. He wanted to avoid Talbot's as well as Daniel's gaze.

In her office, Miss Perkins took a seat behind her desk and offered Sully the chair in front of it with a brief gesture.

"So, what's the problem?" she asked directly, without further ado, and looked at him with her vacant eyes which made it impossible to guess what she thought.

"I wanted to … ." Suddenly, Sully didn't know how to begin anymore; or to be more exact: he had never actually given a thought to that. He hadn't considered a tactic, or the words he would choose. He had only thought about a way to get into this room and, eventually, have an opportunity to grab the knife, if only it was still where Miss Perkins had deposited it.

Miss Perkins raised her eyebrows expectantly, and Sully knew that he had to say something.

"Mr. Talbot beat me up and then locked me up for two days without water or food."

The words just gushed out of him, as directly and brutally as the event had actually been. An incredulous and – as Sully found – even shocked expression crept onto Miss Perkins' face.

"What?" escaped her lips.

"He dragged me out of my bed the night I came here. He wanted to punish me because I'd hit Jackson."

Miss Perkins seemed to be frozen at first; then she slowly rose from her chair and turned away from him. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Never, as long as she had been here, never had a child dared to oppose one of the guardians in such an open way, even if Sully certainly wasn't the first one who had had reason. And she had been grateful that nobody had done it, because this way she was able to close her eyes to the things that had happened. She knew the guardians and their methods of bringing the kids to heel, and she suspected that the punishments they used were often enough immoderate and inhumane, but they served their purpose. This way she was able to run the orphanage smoothly, and the management of the factory knew that they could rely on the children's obedience and discipline and were willing to renew their contract with the orphanage every year, which meant that there was money enough to guarantee the children a roof over their head and daily meals. Nobody talked about the sacrifices that had to be made; the sacrifices she and her conscience had to make.

And now, this boy came and spoke loudly about things which were usually left unsaid. Wasn't he afraid of the consequences?

"Why do you say that?" she asked him in a low voice. Sully frowned.

"Because it's true. Holly can confirm it. She let me out."

She shook her head and turned around to him. "No. You've got me wrong. I mean: Why do you _say_ that?"

Sully started to understand. She was giving him the opportunity to tell her that she should forget everything. He noticed the sadness in her eyes. She begged him silently to change his mind.

"I'm saying it, because it is not right of Mr. Talbot to do things like that. And because … because somebody must say, when there is something that is not right." His blue eyes pierced into hers. Defiantly and pleadingly.

She resisted his gaze for a while, then she said: "Yes, somebody must do that. You can go now, I will take care of it."

_No._

He sat rooted to his chair. This couldn't be. She couldn't send him away yet. His only chance just couldn't pass by that quickly.

"I said, you can go", Miss Perkins repeated when he didn't comply with her request. "Or is there something else?"

Sully tried frantically to think of something that would extend his stay in this room. But he couldn't come up with an idea. Why did he have to blurt out everything like that? Couldn't he just have embroidered it a bit? Beat about the bush? Squirmed? Why was he so direct? He wasn't good with words. He never had been. He always said only what was necessary, not more not less.

He couldn't think of anything. Or simply: "Would you please _not_ tell Mr. Talbot that I was talking to you?"

Miss Perkins laughed out briefly, not amused, and asked back: "And why did you come to me in the first place?"

"Because I thought you should know."

"I'm sorry, but when I'm told about something like that, I have to take the appropriate steps. In any case, I must talk to Mr. Talbot."

"But perhaps you could …", Sully was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Yes?" Miss Perkins called.

The door opened slowly and it was Daniel who poked his head around the door.

Sully's eyes opened wide, and Miss Perkins asked impatiently: "What do you want?"

"I … uuum … I just wanted to ask, if I could stay here today. I don't feel well." He held his stomach.

Miss Perkins frowned: "Why don't you talk to Mr. Talbot? Or better go straight to Dr. Tuttle next door, since you are here."

Daniel, visibly feeling awkward, shifted from one foot to the other and stammered: "I … well, I didn't want to … I thought … well, I thought I'd better go to you first, if you don't mind. I … well, Mr. Talbot …". He faltered and looked down at the toe of his shoe. Miss Perkins threw a short, almost guilty glance at Sully, then she got up, walked over to Daniel and said, friendlier than before: "Well, come on, let's just go to Dr. Tuttle together."

They left the room and Sully could hear Miss Perkins knocking on the door of the next room. Now it was a matter of seconds. It wouldn't take even one minute for Miss Perkins to come back. There was only enough time to run around the desk, open the drawer and hope that the knife still lay exactly where Miss Perkins had placed it. He didn't have time to search for it. Sully's heart was racing. He opened the drawer … and there it was. Although it was lying in the middle of various other things the director had taken away from children, Sully saw it immediately. He took it, made it vanish instantaneously in his pocket, then closed the drawer quietly and flitted back to his place in front of the desk.

Miss Perkins returned just a few seconds later.

"So, Byron", she said to him, and thank God she didn't seem to notice that his breathing was heavier than before. "You really should go back to your group now. You will surely leave for the factory at any minute." She pondered briefly and then she added: "I will accompany you and inform Mr. Talbot that Daniel is at Dr. Tuttle's and will probably stay here today."

Sully stood slowly up from his chair. He felt the knife in his pant pocket. Now that he had achieved his aim, his mind turned towards the one thought he had suppressed before: Mr. Talbot. She would talk to him. And he would know that Sully had grassed on him. Talbot wouldn't be Talbot if he didn't take revenge for that. The knife would have a high price; that was certain.


	8. Chapter 8

8.

The day passed by without any further incidents. Miss Perkins obviously hadn't had time for a conversation with Mr. Talbot in the morning. And so Sully didn't get molested in any way and spent his time cleaning heaps of cotton in the factory together with the other boys once again.

It was an extremely boring day. Since Daniel had stayed at the orphanage, Sully sat with Elias and Gordon most of the time, listening to their talks. They chatted about the other boys, about the factory, about the orphanage. Just about the world they lived in. They talked about Michael Nolan from another dormitory who had found a big, fat maggot in his porridge and they wondered whether this was the kitchen staff's fault or whether Nolan's arch rival Jesse Harrison could have been responsible for it. They wondered whether Daniel was seriously ill and whether he would have to swallow Dr. Tuttle's terrible medicine, which the doctor used against each and every kind of illness.

"Daniel will be his old self by tomorrow, you can bet on that", Gordon said to Sully with laughter, "nobody stands that treatment longer than a day." Elias chortled. And then they reminded each other of their own stories and experiences with Dr. Tuttle's notorious medicine.

Sully lost himself in his own thoughts. Or at least he tried. He tried to grasp all the things that swirled around in his head: Daniel …. Talbot … Miss Perkins …. Holly …. their plan, if it could be called a plan at all.

Suddenly he wasn't that confident anymore. This morning and the visit to Miss Perkins' office had made everything so real. Until that moment it had only been formed and existed in his mind, but now it couldn't be stopped anymore. He had his knife, and Talbot would hate Sully more than ever before, because of the things the boy had disclosed about him to Miss Perkins. Now they were right in the middle of their half-baked plan.

What if Talbot got a hold of him, before they found an opportunity to talk to Holly? What if Holly wouldn't help them? Giving a little boy something to eat and drink when he was completely weakened was totally different to supporting two little boys in their escape. And if she really did, how would it go on? What would they live on? Who would protect them on the streets of New York and – in the case that they actually made it – on their way to the west? Wasn't all this crazy? Sully felt more than uneasy.

_You are a fighter… _

Had his mother overrated him? She had often told him the story of his birth. She had told him about the ship and the storm, and that the labour had started much too early; about her fear and about his father who had tried to find help in vain. "But you didn't let it get you down", she had always said, a smile on her face and looking so proud, "you wanted to live, and you fought your way through. And you always will, no matter what happens."

What would become of him if he stayed at the orphanage and had to sweat away at the factory every single day, exposed to Talbot's moods and sadism? What would he do when he eventually left the orphanage at the age of sixteen? Would he end up like his father? Not dreaming his life's dream to the end, not even trying? His father had always wanted to go to the west. He had dreamt of the land there. Maybe that had been such a half-baked dream as well, and the reality of having a family, who he had to care for, had brought him back to the ground and put him in chains. Chains that had killed him at last.

Sully didn't want to be in chains. Whatever happened, he wanted to at least have a try. What could he lose? Nothing. Everything he had loved had already disappeared from his life.

"My sister told me that she saw Sicko Wheeler on the street the other day", Sully heard Gordon's voice now. Elias eyes nearly popped out of his head.

"Sicko Wheeler?" he repeated. "I thought he was in the slammer."

Gordon nodded: "Yeah, everybody thought so, but Harriet said she is quite sure. He stood at the corner and looked over. Cigarette in his mouth and his usual grin, you can imagine."

Elias grimaced as if he felt sick.

"Who are you talking about?" Sully asked, half interested.

"About Sicko Wheeler", Gordon replied, as if this answered everything.

"Yeah, I heard that already. But who is he?"

"He was here in the orphanage", Elias explained, "nasty guy, completely crazy, that's why they called him Sicko. His real name was …. ", he was racking his brain.

"Jeremia", Gordon helped out, "his name was Jeremia. Of all names." He laughed out loud.

"So?" asked Sully.

"He kept starting fights. In the end he attacked a guardian; here in the factory; with a fork; he had nicked it during the meal. Then they put him into jail. At least supposedly they did. He vanished from the orphanage, anyhow, and nobody shed a tear over him."

"And now he's running around here again", Elias said gloomily. "I'm sure he's in some gang."

Gordon nodded.

Sully could easily imagine what the talks between Gordon and Elias would sound like if he really ran away from the orphanage: 'Do you remember that Sully-guy? He was only ten and thought he could do a bunk just like that. He really had a screw loose. Got poor Daniel into a right mess, too.'

Sully tried to concentrate on the cotton_. Don't think; just stop thinking. _

The day dragged on terribly. Even Gordon and Elias ran out of things to talk about after a while. In the evening, all children where completely exhausted by the work and the boredom. Talbot and the other guardians accompanied them back to the orphanage, where dinner waited for them. Daniel wasn't there.

Sully's eyes wandered repeatedly to the table where Miss Perkins and the guardians sat. He wasn't able to hear what they were talking about, but at the end of the meal Miss Perkins and Talbot actually stood up together and he obviously followed her to her office.

Sully's stomach turned. What had he done? He felt for the knife in his pocket. Who knew its price? Was it worth it? What would his father have said? The knife was everything he had inherited from him. Was it really worth it?

His heart beat so loudly that Sully thought everybody could hear it, as he followed the other boys to the dormitory. Upstairs, however, there was a delightful surprise for him at first: Daniel was already there and lay in his bed next to Sully's. He looked towards Sully full of expectation. Sully knew exactly what question this look implied and nodded almost imperceptibly. Daniel started to grin, but when he saw that Sully didn't respond in the same way he was immediately worried again. Sully went to the washroom first and got changed before he lay down in his bed.

"How are you?" he asked, and Daniel screwed up his face.

"Dr. Tuttle's medicine performs miracles. I won't get ill for a long time, that's for sure", he said and then he lowered his voice and asked so quietly that only Sully was able to hear him: "So?"

"He is at Miss Perkins' right now."

"Oh, damn!"

They looked at each other without saying another word. It wasn't necessary to talk about the meaning of this information. Talbot was in Miss Perkins' office and what they would talk about was quite clear. And how Talbot would react was clear as well.

Sully stared at the ceiling. Any moment, Talbot would turn up and then he would take his revenge. Either at once, or - like last time - sometime in the middle of the night with a sudden attack. It would definitely be even worse this time. Maybe he wouldn't even survive.

"We can take turns keeping guard tonight", Daniel suggested. He seemed to have guessed Sully's thoughts. "And if Talbot tries anything", he went on, "if he attacks you, we can raise the alarm."

Sully swallowed. "Yes", he whispered weakly, almost voiceless.

"But probably he won't dare to do something anyway, because Miss Perkins would get to know it for sure", Daniel pondered, still meaning to encourage his friend, "actually, it's not _possible_ for him to do anything. I mean, she would fire him. Actually, Miss Perkins is not bad. You could see it this morning, when I was … umm, well, when I was so sick." Daniel chuckled briefly. "Took care of me real nicely."

The door flew open and Talbot swept into the room.

"Everybody in bed?" he asked without looking around, and immediately extinguished the lamp next to the door. He strode through the room with long paces, letting his eyes run from one side to the other as usual, turned out the light of the second lamp at the end of the dormitory, and vanished wordlessly into his room.

He hadn't taken any notice of Sully at all.

The boy's heart was pounding against his chest. That couldn't have been all. He would come at night, Sully was certain about that. He would fetch him and drag him to that dark and stuffy room again, and there he would beat him half to death. Or completely.

Sully's nightshirt was soaked in sweat. He was scared like never before in his life. And nobody was there to protect him; no father, no mother. Nobody who stood in front of him and kept people like Talbot away from him. Sully wanted to cry in fear.

"We'll take turns, Sully", Daniel whispered to him, "try to sleep. I'll watch out. Promise."

Sully nodded again, but he didn't look at his friend. He closed his eyes and tried to think himself to another place. Away from here. To freedom.


	9. Chapter 9

9.

"Get up! Come on you sleepyheads, work is calling!" Talbot marched through the room and swung his loud hand bell while doing so.

Sully opened his eyes. He lay in his bed. The room was light. Murmuring started around him; the other boys stirred and tottered drowsily to the washroom. Daniel, next to him, had obviously been awake for quite a while; since the last time they had taken turns to be exactly. He yawned hugely and winked at Sully. Nothing had happened. The night had passed without Talbot doing anything to him.

"There you are. Like I told you. He just can't afford to do anything. Miss Perkins would never put up with it", Daniel whispered to Sully as they got dressed. Then they ran down the stairs with the others as they did every morning, on the hunt for the best seats at the breakfast table.

Sully wasn't quite confident yet. That was exactly the frightening thing about Talbot: that he struck when people expected it least.

Down in the dining hall, they met Holly. Sully said hello, but she turned away at once and rushed toward her seat at the staff table. Mr. Talbot ignored Sully completely, too, but Miss Perkins gave him a nod when their eyes met. Sully took it as encouragement and was surprised about it. He hadn't had expected Miss Perkins to actually have this obvious influence over Mr. Talbot. The boy finally started to calm down.

"Do you know what's wrong with Holly?" he asked Daniel in passing.

The latter took a huge bite of his bread and simply shrugged.

As usual they had far too little time. After only a few minutes they were admonished to finish the meal and the guardians rounded up their groups.

Talbot guided them to their workplace in the hall with all the cotton as always, and then he disappeared immediately.

The boys sat in groups as they were used to. Gordon and Elias sat together, and Sully and Daniel sought a place where they could have a quiet chat.

"I just can't believe that I'm sitting here and nothing has happened", Sully said.

"Yeah, it's not like Talbot to let it rest, but what can he do if Miss Perkins gave him a rough ride?"

"You think she did?"

"She must have done."

Daniel scratched his ear and seemed to feel kind of embarrassed.

"Listen! I have to tell you something."

Sully frowned. The sound of Daniel's voice didn't bode well.

"You asked about Holly earlier on, didn't you", Daniel started, "well, the point is: yesterday, when I stayed at the orphanage I thought it was the best opportunity to ask Holly. You know what."

Sully stared at him with big eyes. Of course. How could he not have thought of this himself?

"So, when she brought something to eat up to the dormitory, I did it." He paused, and Sully thought he knew what would come next.

"So?" he urged, when Daniel didn't want to come out with it.

"You can already guess, can't you?" Daniel raised his brows apologetically. "She said no. She won't do it."

"Why not?" Sully blurted out in pure denial.

"Man, because she just won't do it. She won't do it." Daniel took a deep breath and Sully kept staring at him as if he expected Daniel to eventually say: "Okay, I was just kidding. She will do it." But he didn't.

"I didn't wanna tell you that yesterday evening. You were already down enough", Daniel said.

"What do we do now?" Sully asked, and for the first time Daniel heard something like despair in his voice. For the very first time he really sounded like a small, ten year old boy.

"We will think of something", Daniel said, "or …", he hesitated briefly, "don't you want to anymore?"

At that very moment the door was opened and Mr. Talbot came into the hall, followed by a man in working clothes.

"Listen, everyone!" Mr. Talbot's voice roared through the room and all the boys listened to him immediately.

"Mr. Faraday here needs someone to clean the machines in Hall three. One of you must do it."

The boys looked at him in utter dismay. Cleaning the machines? That was the most dangerous work and therefore only smaller children were used to do it, since they could easily duck under the machines. Here in this hall all the boys were older than ten years and certainly too tall to do that kind of work.

Mr. Faraday let his eyes roam over the children and then he actually said to Mr. Talbot: "I don't think that they are right, Frank, they are already too tall."

"Oh no", said Talbot, playing down Faradays objections with a dismissive gesture. "There are some who are still small enough, and I'm sure they are careful too."

Talbot's gaze flew over the heads of the boys until he found Sully and this time he looked directly into his eyes. Sully had the feeling that a tiny, fleeting smile appeared on Talbot's face. He should have known. Now the moment of revenge had come and Talbot wouldn't even have to take it with his own hand.

Talbot hesitated for a second and his gaze clung to Sully. Then he opened his mouth and said: "Gordon! You will do it." And while he said it his watery eyes stayed resting on Sully. The message Talbot sent him couldn't have been clearer: I can't do anything to you, but I can make your friends suffer instead of you, and you are responsible for it.

Gordon got up reluctantly. Naked fear was written on his face.

"You are one of the smallest, aren't you, Gordon?" Talbot spoke to him; his eyes, however, didn't leave Sully. It couldn't have been worse had he grabbed him with his hands. Every single word directed at Gordon was a blow in Sully's face.

"Let's get going then", Talbot continued relentlessly, "go with Mr. Faraday. He will tell you what you have to do."

Gordon swallowed hard. He wanted to beg not to have to come along. He wanted to say that he had done this kind of work once and that he had been much smaller then; that they had eventually found him to be too tall and sent him to the cotton cleaning. But he didn't say a word. It wasn't wise to oppose Mr. Talbot, least of all when another adult was around. Therefore he just turned around briefly to Elias and then left the hall with Mr. Faraday. The other boys looked after him, taken aback. Mr. Talbot gave Sully a short smirk and then disappeared as well.

Nobody said a word. After a while they all started to go on with their work and finally they also began to talk to each other again. Little by little the familiar background noise replaced the shocked silence. Only Sully was still frozen.

"That pig", Daniel hissed through clenched teeth. "That damn pig. To hell with him."

"It should have been me", Sully breathed. Daniel gave him a look of deep concern. "It's not your fault, Sully", he said, "it's Talbot. Talbot alone."

"Yes", said Sully, "but still."


	10. Chapter 10

10.

"There's a man from the factory, Miss Perkins."

The director looked up from her desk and frowned.

"Who is it? Mr. Aberdeen?"

Mr. Aberdeen was the director of the factory, and sometimes – more exactly: once a year – he came over for a meeting, but never unexpectedly, and Miss Perkins couldn't imagine what business should have brought him to the orphanage at the moment.

"No, it's a worker", Holly said, and her huge eyes were filled with concern about the message a simple worker might bring.

Miss Perkins became worried, too.

"He may come in", she said. Her breathing became faster. Last time a worker from the factory had come with a message, they had informed her about the accidental death of a boy.

Holly could remember this incident very well too.

The worker came in, took off his cap and nodded to Miss Perkins in greeting. By looking at him, she could tell at once that he brought bad news.

"What happened?" she asked directly.

"There was an accident, Ma'am", the worker said, and when he saw Miss Perkin's frozen expression he quickly added: "Don't worry, the kid's alive; we called for a doctor and he said … well, he wasn't sure, if …", he faltered, clearly feeling awkward.

"If he what?" Miss Perkins asked impatiently.

"Well, the arm doesn't look good. The boy ought to be taken to a clinic to …. Or he, I mean the doctor, could take off the arm and …" Holly gave a stifled sob at the back of the room.

Miss Perkins clapped her hand over her mouth.

"So, the doctor wants to know if you …" The man fell silent in shame.

"If we can pay the clinic for the child?" Miss Perkins asked. The man nodded.

Miss Perkins looked at Holly. "Holly, please, go to the factory with this man and tell the doctor he is to do anything that is necessary to save the arm. Anything, you hear me?"

Holly nodded and left the office together with the man straightaway.

----------------------

When Holly came back after an hour, Miss Perkins was still sitting at her desk in the same position as before.

"It's Gordon Thomson", Holly said.

"Gordon?" Miss Perkins asked. "But why? He doesn't work with the machines. He's eleven, too tall for that."

Holly didn't react.

"They took him to the clinic", she merely said.

"I want to know exactly what happened", Miss Perkins said.

"I don't know, Miss Perkins. Gordon was working with the machines; that is all."

Holly's face seemed to be made of stone.

"I want to talk to Mr. Talbot as soon as he is back in the house", Miss Perkins said.

"I'll tell him." Holly turned around and left the room.

-------------

The few hours till the evening and the end of the work in the factory lasted forever. Not only Miss Perkins felt this way, but also Sully who repeatedly raised his eyes whenever the door was opened and waited for Gordon to turn up again. But he didn't.

"He surely has to stay there for the whole day", Daniel said, trying to wipe away Sully's dark thoughts with this explanation, and his own too.

But when Gordon didn't join up with them like all others on the way back to the orphanage, and also didn't appear at dinner, he ran out of calming explanations.

Holly had spoken to Mr. Talbot as soon as they arrived, whereupon he had gone. Miss Perkins wasn't at her place in the dining hall.

Sully's heart started racing again. Something had happened that was as clear as daylight. Nobody told them anything. The other guardians kept the silence at the tables and Holly served the meal.

"Holly, what's wrong?" Daniel asked her under his breath. She just shook her head jerkily as if she was trying to shake off a fly. Then she went to the staff table, took the plate for Miss Perkins, and filled it with food.

Mr. Talbot came back soon afterwards and sat down, perfectly calm, and even seemed to be pretty pleased with himself. Before he started to eat he threw Sully another short glance. His watery blue eyes were filled with a triumphant shine.

--------------------

Miss Perkins was still sitting at her desk, staring into space when Holly came in. The girl carried a tray with a cup of tea and couple of sandwiches on a plate. At the door she had almost run into Mr. Talbot, but he had scarcely noticed her. He didn't seem to be in bad mood at all, rather the opposite.

Holly placed the tray in front of Miss Perkins and remained by the desk. It took a few seconds before the director stirred.

"That's nice of you, Holly, but I'm not hungry. Otherwise I would have come to the dining hall, I suppose." She tried to sound confident and unfazed, and not tired and resigned. But her face betrayed her. She was probably aware of this herself, since she got up and turned her back to Holly. Holly left the tray on the desk and went towards the door.

"Do you disdain me?" she suddenly heard Miss Perkins' voice. Holly turned around and said: "Pardon?"

"Mr. Talbot sent Gordon to the machines. I don't know why he did it, but I have an idea." She turned to Holly and her face was marked with suppressed anger and helplessness. Suddenly her eyes were not empty any longer, but filled with disgust.

"Yesterday morning, Byron Sully told me what Talbot had done to him a few days earlier", she continued. "I confronted Talbot about that and I warned him that there would be consequences if something like that ever happened again. But the fact is: there won't be any consequences. I just can't afford it. And that is what he has shown me today in an unmistakable way. And he has also shown it to little Sully. He will probably take care of him too, and I can't do anything against it."

"But why not?" Holly shouted.

"Because I_ can't_. I can't fire Talbot. He has got the boys under control, they toe the line, they work, and the factory sees men like him as the guarantee that it will remain that way. The contract with the factory depends on the fact that we can present people like Talbot. Aberdeen virtually raves about him. It doesn't matter to him if children suffer or get hurt or die; the main thing for him is that they are good, cheap workers and bring profit. And we need the money to give the children a home, food and a roof over their heads. It's just as it is, and it will stay that way. That's the reason, Holly, that's the reason why I can't do anything against it." Miss Perkins had difficulties holding back tears of helplessness. But then she took a deep breath and tried to get a grip on herself with all her might. She sat down at her desk and drank some tea.

Holly looked at her in dismay.

"Is that the most important thing?" she asked.

Miss Perkins looked up.

"What do you mean? The most important thing? Of course it's the most important thing", she said, and the usual emptiness gradually returned to her eyes. "Actually you of all people should know that, don't you?" she added and finally took one of the sandwiches.

"Yes", said Holly with a low voice, and Miss Perkins, who had turned her gaze away and considered the conversation to be finished, missed the hurt expression in the girl's eyes.

Holly walked to the door slowly, opened it almost silently, as she usually did, and left with a last glance at the director who was perfectly her old self after this emotional outburst.

Miss Perkins had decided to remain indifferent, to not let the children's suffering get to her, to ignore it; as she had done so many times before. This was her way and she would keep walking on this way. Until the end.

Holly went back to the dining hall, where the children were already about to get up. She helped to clean up at once and – as if it were by chance – walked to the table where Sully and Daniel had just left their seats. In passing she collided with Daniel and let some mugs fall to the floor. They both bend down to pick them up.

"Tonight!" Holly hissed quickly in a low voice; then she took the mugs, got up, and disappeared into the kitchen.


	11. Chapter 11

**11.**

The dormitory had fallen silent a long time ago. A couple of hours had probably passed since Mr. Talbot had extinguished the lights and gone to his room.

Two of the boys, however, lay awake still with eyes wide open and without moving. They didn't dare. The next move would set the ball rolling.

_Tonight._

They had no idea why Holly had changed her opinion, but there must have been a reason.

It was too much for the children: this back and forth, the swaying between wanting to and not, the consideration of the risks and the assessment of the lesser evil. Such kinds of decision were too much even for most adults, and certainly they were for two young boys at the ages of ten and twelve. But nevertheless they had to decide. Now. Because every second that went by held the risk that someone might take the decision away from them. Mr. Talbot perhaps. Or simply their own naked fear.

_I can't stay here. I just can't. I can't. I can't. I can't …._

Among the thousand thoughts that swirled around in Sully's head, this was the loudest. And finally it shouted all other thoughts of fear down.

Sully turned his head to the side, and with this little movement everything began.

They didn't say a word. Daniel answered Sully's look through the darkness and together they got up from their places and took their things, which were already packed waiting for them at the head of the beds. They soundlessly got dressed, then prepared the sheets so that at least in the darkness they would still seem to be lying in their beds, and after that they left the dormitory on tiptoes, opening and closing the door extremely carefully.

In the hallway outside it was even darker than in the dormitory where at least the windows gave a little light.

They carefully felt for the first step of the staircase which was quite close, and then they sneaked downstairs.

How were they supposed to find Holly's room in this darkness? Sully thought. He had been there only once and Holly had carried a light then.

He tried to remember the way. It was two floors down, then to the left and then through a door. Sully carefully moved forwards, his hands feeling the walls, and Daniel followed him closely.

There was the door. Sully opened it quietly. Now they were in the small hallway, but from here on Sully couldn't remember how to proceed. How many doors had there been before they had reached Holly's room? Two or three?

At the very end of the hallway there was a small glimmer of light. One door was half open. They went straight towards it and Sully peeked through the crack. She was sitting on her bed, covered in a long, white nightdress. Pale, in the dim beam of the lamp, the flame of which she had reduced as much as possible. The two boys reluctantly stepped in and gave her an expectant look, without saying a word. Holly immediately jumped up and closed the door behind them.

"Hurry. Have you brought your nightshirts?" she asked. They nodded.

"Give them to me."

She took both nightshirts, picked up a pair of scissors, and cut them lengthwise into two parts. Then she tied the four pieces together so that they formed a kind of rope.

"It's too high to jump. You can use this to lower yourselves to the ground. I think it will hold you, you don't weigh that much.

Sully and Daniel just stood around, feeling uncomfortable.

"What are you waiting for?" Holly asked. "Go!" She was clearly avoiding their gazes and Sully couldn't hold back any longer.

"What happened? Why are you helping us after all? Daniel told me you didn't want to."

Holly stared at the nightshirt-rope and bit her lower lip.

"That doesn't matter", she murmured.

"Yes, maybe", said Sully, "But I'd still like to know."

"Gordon will probably lose his arm", said Holly, "and Miss Perkins can't do anything against Talbot."

The revelation hit them like a slap in the face.

"He will go on like before. He is a sadist, and he knows that money means more than a poor orphan."

She turned to Sully.

"Miss Perkins also told me that you have reported Talbot. That was very brave of you. I should have done it, but I was too scared, and I have no other life but this one here. But you and Daniel, you are brave, and you have the chance to change things."

"But so have you", Sully blurted out. "Just get away from here, too. Come with us."

Holly laughed. For the very first time Sully saw her laughing. But her laughter was combined with tears, desperate and resigned.

"I had a brother who was here in the orphanage too. He caused trouble all the time, stood up to people like Talbot, I mean, he really defended himself, and one day they took him away. I guess he is still in jail, or maybe he is already dead. I haven't heard anything from him for three years now. I don't want to end up like him. You two have a chance. You're different. And if I help you now, it's at least a bit like I …". Again, she bit her lip and didn't end the sentence.

"Go on", she said then, and opened the window. She tied the rope to the massive iron mullion and threw it out. Daniel leaned out. It was actually further down than they had thought, and he hoped that the nightshirts were made of strong material.

Holly however reached under her bed and pulled out a small box. She opened it and took a few banknotes out. She extended them to Sully:

"It's not much, but at least you won't have to steal for now."

"But we … we cannot accept this, Holly", Sully said. "It's your money. You have earned it, and you need it." He couldn't grasp what the girl was doing for them.

"I hardly need anything inside here", she answered. "I intended to save it for my brother, to help him. But it's not very likely that I will ever see him again. So, just take it."

She thrust it brusquely into Sully's hand. Then she reached under the bed again and this time she pulled out a rolled up, strikingly patterned quilt. She hesitated briefly, and then she said: "You will probably need this in case you don't find a decent place to sleep and it's cold outside. I won't need it for sure, so take this too."

"Thank you, Holly" was all that Sully was able to stammer. She seemed not to notice him.

"Get a move on", she commanded, "or do you want to reconsider?" Her question was seriously meant, but the boys shook their heads. Daniel was the first to climb onto the windowsill, and he lowered himself carefully on the homemade rope. When he had reached the ground safely, Holly told Sully: "Now you. When you reach the bottom, I'll untie the rope and throw it down to you. You have to take it with you, so nobody will know that I helped you. Let it vanish somewhere, when you don't need it anymore."

"All right", Sully said. Right before he was about to climb down, he looked into Holly's eyes, and she returned his look this time without evasion, completely undisguised. There was something he had never noticed before, or maybe he might have when she had freed him from his prison and given him something to eat, but he had probably been too exhausted to see it then - through all her resignation: something rebellious.

"You can get away too, Holly", Sully whispered once again, "you can find your brother; you can do anything you want."

A hint of a smile touched her face for a fleeting moment.

"Yes. Perhaps", she said in an equally low voice. "One day. I won't forget you, little Sully."

For a moment Sully found it incredibly hard to leave Holly behind, but Daniel was waiting for him at the bottom and he had to hurry. He didn't dare to waste time. That was too risky for all of them.

"I won't forget you either, Holly." Then he climbed down.

Holly untied the rope and threw it down. The boys picked it up and when they looked back to the window, Holly had already shut it and drawn the curtains closed. One second later, the small glimmer of light went out and it was as though they had never been there.


	12. Chapter 12

**12.**

"Byron Sully and Daniel Simon are gone." Mr. Talbot hadn't waited for an answer to his knock on the door and had stormed into Miss Perkins' office. Miss Perkins was startled: "How dare you barge in here like this?"

Mr. Talbot didn't even notice the rebuke. There were red patches on his usually pale face, and they revealed the degree of his agitation just like the unseemly manner of his intrusion.

"We must search for them at once", he bellowed, and his watery eyes almost popped out of their sockets. His look was as twisted as it had been when he had beaten Sully completely out of control.

Miss Perkins studied him with a kind of curious disgust. She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms in front of her body.

"The police will do that as soon as they are informed", she replied curtly, "and now you ought to calm down and deal with _your_ responsibilities, otherwise some more children might disappear."

"The police have never brought back one of those little rascals; you know that as well as I do. We have to take care of it ourselves before they are miles away."

Miss Perkins looked at him with surprise and got up from her chair.

"Since when were you interested in tracking down some missing children? They are not the first ones who ran away."

"They are important for the work in the factory. There are … there are not enough kids otherwise."

Miss Perkins gave him an almost pitiful smile.

"My dear Mr. Talbot you didn't care that there might be an absent child worker when you needlessly sent Gordon to the machines. Don't make such a fuss. I will go to the police myself and give them a description of the boys. We have never done anything else, and we won't do anything else this time just because you haven't completely savored your revenge on one of the missing boys yet. What did you intend for him? Had you already made certain plans which he has foiled now? Don't worry, Mr. Talbot. You are right, I don't have many possibilities to do anything against you, but that doesn't mean that I can't figure you out, and it also doesn't mean that I can't let you know how much I despise you. Now get out of here."

Miss Perkins' face was glowing with rage.

Mr. Talbot didn't dare to say another word. He turned on his heels and left the room.

Miss Perkins rang the bell, and after a little while Holly came in.

"What's this about Byron Sully and Daniel Simon?" Miss Perkins asked instantly.

"Mr. Talbot says they ran away last night", Holly said briefly. "They were not in their beds this morning when he woke the kids", she added, as if this was additional information and not already implicit, which of course was natural in view of the facts.

"But how did they manage it?" Miss Perkins asked, however it sounded more like a general consideration and so Holly merely shrugged, apparently clueless.

"Well, it doesn't matter anyhow", Miss Perkins said, "they are gone, and that's a fact. I will go to the police right away." Holly nodded.

"Thank you. That is all, Holly." The girl left the room and Miss Perkins breathed a sigh.

The director reported the disappearance of the two boys at the nearest police station which was only ten minutes away from the orphanage. The police officer noted down the facts, unmoved and without comment: names, age and looks of the boys. He didn't want to hear much more, and Miss Perkins, who had already experienced this situation a few times, knew that he – perhaps - might pass on the information just in case the children happened to run into some police officer. But that was all. Nobody would start a search for the boys. Two orphans? Runaways? Why? Why on earth would anyone bother to search for them, waste their energy for two orphans when there were more important things to take care of: gang wars, brawls, burglaries and much worse. The police were occupied enough.

Miss Perkins went home, quite sure in her assumption that she would never see either of the boys again. But was that bad? For little Sully at least it was certainly better not to be near Talbot any more, and with Daniel at his side … maybe fate would be good to them after all. It wasn't very likely, but sometimes – not that she had ever seen one – sometimes they said miracles happened.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Mr. Talbot contemplated.

He wouldn't have been himself if he had allowed the matter to rest. Never, never had one of the boys dared what Byron Sully had dared: to denounce him to the director. Sure, there had been some who had tried to compete with him or to rebel against him. But he had always been able to break them. And the worst one of them had gotten what he deserved and had probably rotted in jail. Talbot always had paid it back to them in one way or another, and Byron Sully wouldn't get away just like that without being sorry. The matter with Gordon had afflicted the boy, he could see that, but that was just supposed to be the beginning. Talbot was full of ideas and for this little denunciator he had plenty of them to hand.

So he had to find him.

After he had delivered the boys to the factory, Talbot went back to the orphanage.

Somehow they had managed to escape. Had they been able to secretly obtain a key? Was there some kind of bolt-hole that he didn't know about? Or was there someone who had helped them? And if so, who was it? No matter how, there must have been traces. People didn't disappear without leaving any traces; much less stupid kids.

Talbot sneaked around the entire house, his eyes fixed on the ground.

Between the boys' tract of the building and that of the girls there was a forlorn and dirty inner yard, where the ground wasn't covered with cobblestones but with dirt and weeds. Only a single door led from the building to this yard: the one from the kitchen. The cook used to store the garbage right next to this door within a kind of small fence.

Did they come through this door? Talbot was about to go in when his gaze was captured by something else. At a spot only a few meters away from that fence there was clearly trampled grass. He went closer and looked around. He could see footprints, only vaguely, but they were there, and they did not belong to the cook who only had to walk the few meters between the door and the fence.

Talbot looked upwards. They had climbed out of a window; that was certain. Which window? He was going to find out. Whoever had helped those little bastards was going to pay, just like them. For the moment it was important to find more traces and follow them.

He looked around. Carefully. It was difficult to see anything because there wasn't much light in this yard, and the ground was solid so that there weren't many footprints. A few meters further the weeds was trampled too. They hadn't taken care of such things. They had probably been relieved to be outside and hadn't even dreamt of someone picking up their tracks and following them. They didn't reckon on Talbot. They didn't know him. But now they would get to know him.

He followed the tracks out of the yard. He at least knew the direction they had run in. Where would they go? Daniel had been at the orphanage for a long time, he certainly had no idea where to go, but Sully had lived outside all of those years. It was natural for him to go to a place he knew. Where did he come from? Five Points probably. More than probably. And that was exactly the direction he went in now.

"Hey!" Talbot called to a man who as sitting at the roadside and playing on some strange instrument. "Have you seen two boys last night or this morning? Twelve and ten years old? One of them with longer hair, the other one pretty tall and blond?"

The man snorted: "Bah, search me. There are a thousand boys." He spat on the sidewalk.

"You've been sitting here for quite a while, right? Probably slept here too", Talbot said with a kick to the bundle on which the man was sitting.

"Maybe", the man said and looked in another direction. Talbot pulled a coin out of his pocket.

"And now?" he asked and held the coin right under the man's nose.

"Two boys, eh?" the man asked, fixated on the money. "Well, maybe someone ran past me; almost stumbled over me even, those brats. Two of them. Were running down the street. It's all I know." Talbot dropped the coin.

He knew enough. Either they had set off very early, then they would have had to sleep at some point, or they had slept first; in which case it couldn't be that long ago that they had started. But in any case they couldn't be that far away.

The first possibility seemed to be most likely. They would have searched for a place to sleep. And he was going to find it.


	13. Chapter 13

**13**.

"Daniel!" Sully tried carefully to wake his friend. Daniel just grunted drowsily and pulled the blanket, which Holly had given them, tightly around his body.

"Daniel!" This time Sully gave him a firm push. "We have to get a move on. The sun's up already." Daniel blinked and at first needed to orientate himself. They were lying in a small kind of passageway between two houses amidst several empty boxes and garbage bins, which were standing there in a mess and probably belonged to the shop next door. Here they had found not only shelter from the cold of the night, but also from the gazes of people. At least as long as it had been dark enough. But now it was very likely that the shop owner would come along sooner or later, or someone else would use the passageway. They had to get away, because they had not gotten very far yet. They were still pretty close to the orphanage.

After they had climbed out of Holly's window they had landed in the inner yard and from there they had taken a route out via the back of the building. In the darkness they had almost tripped over a homeless man who was sleeping on the sidewalk. He had woken up and cursed furiously at them. They were frightened of what other dark figures they might meet at night, and because they were also very tired, they had decided to search for some shelter. They had no idea what would happen when people found out in the morning that they were gone. Would they search for them?

"Well, the police will be informed in any case", Daniel said, "at least I think so. But they've never brought anybody back. So, I guess: once we are out, we can be quite relaxed."

Sully had another feeling on this matter. He couldn't tell why, but so close to the orphanage he still felt threatened.

"Come on, let's pack up and then let's get out of here", Sully urged, and rolled up the quilt. Daniel gathered himself together.

"What do we do with this?" he asked, and held up the rope Holly had made out of their nightshirts. Sully pondered briefly; then his gaze fell on a rusty garbage bin.

"Put it in there", he said, because who would ransack garbage?

Daniel did so, then grabbed his bundle and followed his friend who peeked up and down the street carefully. It was still very early and there were only a few people out at this time.

"Where do we go now?" Daniel asked. Sully shrugged. He only knew his way around the area where he had lived with his family on the fringes of Five Points.

"Let's go south for now", he said and Daniel was happy to go along with anything.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Talbot was looking around furtively; like a predator on foray he moved through the streets: as quickly as possible but tensed and focused. His eyes wandering back and forth, searching for something, anything - whatever could give him a clue. He barely perceived the people around him. Only when he collided with a man, who was just stepping out of his shop, did Talbot seem to come around again.

"Hey! Can't you watch where you're going?" the man snapped at him and shook his head indignantly, but kept moving, carrying a box in his hands, and turned around a corner.

Talbot was angry with himself; it wasn't exactly necessary to cause a stir; after all, he was supposed to be at the factory.

The man came back, threw him a scornful glance and disappeared into his shop.

Talbot started to walk on again slowly until he reached the corner. He stopped when he spotted a small passageway filled with boxes and garbage bins; dark and sheltered from the cold and from gazes. He went in and looked around. He opened one of the bins. A beatific expression emerged in his eyes and a small, pleased smile played around his lips. He pulled out the rope of nightshirts and held it up.

"Here we are!" he whispered.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Sully didn't really know where to go exactly, and so he just followed the street leading south. In the meantime, more and more people were up and about. Shop owners opened their shops, some people rushed past the boys obviously having a certain destination, then again, others simply meandered around, and with most of those Sully preferred not to have a closer encounter. Daniel seemed to have similar thoughts. He was looking around, uncomfortable, and eventually asked: "What do we do next?"

Good question. There plan had consisted of two points; firstly: running away from the orphanage, and secondly: heading westward. But they had never given room for the thought that this wouldn't be a smooth transition. Somehow there was a huge gab in the middle, which they didn't know how to fill. They had to get away from New York, that was quite clear, but how?

"Maybe we ought to go in the direction of the harbor", Daniel suggested, sounding unsure.

"The harbor?" Sully asked.

"Well, we wanna get out of town, right?"

"Yeah, but not on a ship, or do you wanna land in Europe?"

"There are not only ships to Europe", Daniel replied.

"Yeah, right, but none of the ships is going west anyway", Sully said.

"Oh, yeah. Well ...", Daniel said sheepishly. Then he had another idea.

"To Boston!" he exclaimed. "One of the workers at the factory told us once that you can go to Boston by ship. He said it was a grand city; really noble, not at all like New York."

"But Boston isn't in the west either, is it?" Sully asked doubtfully.

"Hmm … no idea where it is _exactly_, but it _is_ in America." At least Daniel was sure about that.

"I don't know", Sully said thoughtfully. "Better not."

So they kept walking on and on without knowing where.

After a while they passed a couple of boys who were hanging around by the roadside. One of them, a sturdy guy with tousled hair and big wild eyes, looked somehow familiar to Sully, but he didn't know where from and actually it couldn't be possible that he knew this guy. He let his eyes rest just a little too long on the boy, and so he attracted his attention.

"Hey, shorty, what are you gawking at?" the boy shouted at him. He must certainly have been sixteen already, and he was a lot taller than Sully and Daniel. Now the other three boys turned around to them, too.

"I'm not", Sully said, and tried to ignore the anger rising inside of him like always when someone threatened him.

"Sure you were", the tall boy insisted and took one step forward. Daniel attempted to pull Sully on with him by the sleeve of his jacket, but the boy stepped in their way. The others had stood up too, but they remained where they were.

"Hey, dude, we're not looking for trouble, okay?" Daniel said. "We just wanna go on."

"Oh yeah?" the big one asked mockingly. "And where do you wanna go?"

"That's none of your business", Sully snapped.

The boys laughed out loud.

"Well, you see", their leader replied, "it _is_ my business. Because people who are gawking at me like you have to buy a pass, if they want to … pass."

The others roared with laughter. "Right, Sicko!" – "Yeah, tell him, how things are around here." – "That's a dollar, right?"

Sicko grinned down at Sully, who flashed a menacing look back.

"Yeah, right", Sicko said. "One dollar."

"There you get your dollar", Sully shouted and in the very next second Sicko Wheeler was hit by a blow right under his chin which made him see stars and sent him staggering backwards.

Sully felt a fierce pain in his hand, but prepared himself for the counterattack. Daniel closed his eyes, and in this moment, he deeply wished that he had never ever met this crazy ten year old, or at least that he could become invisible at once. The other boys had fallen silent, and now approached slowly. Sicko still held his chin, but recovered from this unexpected blow. And then he did something completely exceptional: he laughed. It wasn't a malicious or evil kind of laughter, but appreciative and hearty. It was almost a nice laugh.

"Oh, boy! That was a helluva blow!" Sicko said, shaking his head in disbelief and still laughing. "How old are you anyway?"

Sully darted a mistrustful glance at him, but Daniel answered: "He is ten, and in the orphanage he has broken someone's nose." Sully gave his friend a dig in the ribs, but Sicko said: "I can imagine. So, you're from the orphanage? Runaways, huh?"

"That's none of your business either", Sully said. "And now we wanna pass."

Sicko came up to Sully until he was very close.

"You know that you two wouldn't stand a chance against us, don't you?"

Sully didn't answer. His hand was hurting pretty badly, and he knew that he wouldn't be able to use it anytime soon.

Sicko started to grin again.

"You're lucky. I used to be in the orphanage too. If you like, we can help you."

"No, thanks", Sully said, and finally went past Sicko, who made no move to stop them anymore.

"What's your name anyway?" Sicko called behind them, but immediately answered the question himself: "Yeah, I know: none of my business either." Then he laughed again and the other boys joined in.

Sully didn't turn around another time.

"Hey, that was stupid, Sully. They could have helped us", Daniel said after a short distance.

"Do you wanna end up in a gang?" Sully asked.

"No, but that guy wasn't that bad a sort", Daniel said.

"Yes, he was", Sully retorted. "Because at first, he threatened us. People who are not a bad sort don't threaten others."

"So, you think we can choose who we let help us?"

"Yes, that's what I think", Sully said, frowning, and went on at a quick pace.


	14. Chapter 14

**14.**

Miss Perkins had lost her balance.

She was not yet ready to admit it to herself, but she wasn't able to control her thoughts the way she used to; the only thing that made it possible for her to get up in the morning every day and do her work.

But why not? There had been 'incidents' earlier; kids who had been hurt at the factory, kids who had been chastised by their warden – to put it mildly -, kids who had opposed or even defended themselves, kids who had run away. So, there was nothing new about this one. Only this: for the very first time a kid had touched a sore point, had reported a warden, and by doing so had forced her to see and to act. Little Byron Sully had shaken her awake. Her so carefully preserved inner balance, which she needed so desperately to run the orphanage smoothly, and which she had been able to keep through all the years by not letting herself be touched by the children's sad destiny, this inner balance had gone.

She literally faltered on her way back from the police station to the orphanage.

Suddenly she stopped dead. She had to do something; she couldn't simply let herself be subjected to such a feeling, she never did. She had to sort out the matter. She had to take action. She … noticed that she was quite close to the factory, where the children worked.

Right. She had to get an impression for herself.

She changed direction and walked straight towards the factory.

"I'd like to talk to Mr. Aberdeen", she informed the woman in the small room next to the entrance. She added neither a 'please' nor an **'**if it would be possible'. The woman looked up at her briefly, then nodded and said: "I'm going to ask if he can see you now." She was about to leave, but Miss Perkins said: "I should come along too, so we can save some time."

The woman gave her a sullen look, but Miss Perkins had put on her authoritarian director face which didn't tolerate any argument and certainly not from an ordinary receptionist.

They reached Mr. Aberdeen's office and the woman knocked at the door. But when a deep male voice answered from inside, Miss Perkins slipped past her dumbfounded escort and entered without further ado.

Mr. Aberdeen looked surprised and his employee, who was embarrassed, stammered an apology; Miss Perkins however walked straight up to the man behind the desk, held out her hand to him and said: "Good morning, Mr. Aberdeen, I was just round this way and thought it would be a good idea to have a talk with you." She took a seat without waiting for an offer.

Mr. Aberdeen gave the woman, who was still standing at the door, a nod and made a brief, dismissive gesture, whereupon she quickly withdrew. Then, as the perfect gentleman that he was, he gave Miss Perkins a smile.

Mr. Aberdeen was a portly yet not at all sluggish kind of man in the so called prime of his years. His hair showed significant streaks of gray, and his face mirrored the daily pondering and worries about the factory and his business. Actually, Miss Perkins had never found him dislikeable exactly, but his general attitude towards people, who always came second to his business by a long way, wasn't her cup of tea either. He was kind to people if they were useful to him; he was indifferent as long as they didn't do any harm. But he didn't forgive mistakes, especially those that cost him money.

So far, Miss Perkins got along with him quite well, because he appreciated her down-to-earth manner, and possibly – the thought had only on occasion vaguely crossed her mind – he liked her as a woman. He was not married, and sometimes he joked about his factory being the only 'beloved' in his life.

"What brings you here, my dear Miss Perkins?" he asked, kindly overlooking her unexpected and rather unseemly intrusion.

"As you certainly know, there was an accident yesterday", Miss Perkins started to explain, but stopped when she saw his clueless expression. "Or … don't tell me, you haven't heard, yet", she said in disbelief.

"Well, you must understand that my employees can't inform me about everything that goes on in the factory; they have orders to handle certain things by themselves. I can't take care of everything, after all." He shrugged, looking for her comprehension.

"A child was severely injured", Miss Perkins raised her voice slightly, but kept her faceunmoved."He is probably going to lose his arm."

"I'm really very sorry to hear that", Mr. Aberdeen took refuge in the appropriate platitude. "But as you know …. unfortunately you can never guarantee to avoid such things."

"But you ought to", Miss Perkins cut him short. "The child is eleven years old and was working in the machine hall, even though he is too tall for this kind of work. I want to know why."

Mr. Aberdeen looked baffled.

"He was working in the machine hall?"

"Yes, he was."

Mr. Aberdeen got up and walked over to the door. He gave some unintelligible instructions to a young man who was just passing by outside. Then he came back and sat down again.

"We will find out how this came to happen right away. Certainly a … misunderstanding."

They fell silent until someone knocked on the door. Mr. Faraday entered the room, gave Miss Perkins a brief nod of greeting and looked expectantly at his boss.

"What can you tell us about that accident yesterday, Mr. Faraday? Miss Perkins said an eleven year old boy was , why was an eleven year old boy working with the machines?"

Mr. Faraday looked down at the floor and nodded: "Yes, I know; but one of the girls was ill and so there was one kid fewer. It wouldn't have been that big a problem, but Mr. Talbot said he could spare one of the boys from the cotton cleaning; so I thought it wouldn't be bad if there was one kid more, otherwise one of the other kids would have had to have done double the work, and with the machines, well, you know, you're always glad if a kid doesn't have to climb down there too often_._"

"Mr. Talbot suggested this?" Miss Perkins made sure.

"Yes, Ma'am, he said the boy was small enough."

"And you agreed with his opinion?" Mr. Aberdeen asked. Mr. Faraday squirmed for an answer and didn't know where to direct his eyes.

"Well, …he was probably the smallest in the cotton group."

"I'd like to know whether you agreed with his opinion that the boy was small enough", Mr. Aberdeen insisted, and his tone became sharper.

"No, actually I didn't. But Mr. Talbot said you wouldn't be pleased if the work at the machines wasn't done as always. And he said that the boy was small enough", he added one more time.

"I'm really so sorry about what happened, Ma'am", Mr. Faraday burst out suddenly, unable to keep his composure any longer. "I took the boy to a machine that had been cleaned right before, and I didn't think he would have to climb under this one at all. I also told Moses, who was working at that machine, that he had better stop it if cleaning it became necessary after all. I was not there all the time, and later Moses told me that Talbot had made it clear to him he would get fired if the machine didn't work without a break or if it wasn't clean. He said you would fire him, Mr. Aberdeen."

Mr. Faraday was obviously tortured by deep feelings of guilt, and Miss Perkins and Mr. Aberdeen were speechless from the things they had just heard.

"You can go, Faraday!" Mr. Aberdeen said flatly, but when the man with his head hanging had reached the door, he called after him: "Send Mr. Talbot to me, please!" Faraday nodded and left.

"Mr. Talbot is a sadist, Mr. Aberdeen. I know that for you and your factory it only matters that a warden has control over the boys, and that they respect him and obey without ifs or buts, so that they do their work. Obviously this is the case with Talbot, and that's why you like him, right?" It was clear that Miss Perkins didn't expect an answer, and Mr. Aberdeen did not say a word.

"Last night, two of those boys ran away because they are frightened of Talbot; they are frightened for their lives. Yesterday, a boy was so severely injured that I don't know if he is going to die or lose his arm, and it's Talbot's fault. You should really start to consider, whether so much 'respect'", she spat the word disdainfully in his face, "benefits your factory at the end of the day."

Mr. Aberdeen breathed deeply.

"He is not my employee. It's for you to decide, Miss Perkins."

He looked straight into her eyes and she nodded. She had understood.

"I guess, in my position you would dismiss someone like him", she made sure nevertheless.

Before he could answer, there was a knock at the door once again. Mr. Faraday was back.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Aberdeen, but Mr. Talbot is not in the factory."

Miss Perkins swung around.

"What do you mean: not in the factory?" she asked. "He is a warden. He has to be here."

"All the same, he is nowhere to be found, and Miss Hanson from the reception saw him leave, right after he brought the boys this morning," answered Mr. Faraday with a shrug.

"Well, now I can answer your question: I would indeed fire someone like him", Mr. Aberdeen said to Miss Perkins, who looked startled rather than indignant; it was all too easy for her to figure out what had driven him to leave the factory.

"If only it's not too late for that, Mr. Aberdeen", she said with a low voice. "If only it's not too late. "


	15. Chapter 15

**15.**

Mr. Talbot thought about neither time nor the possibility that somebody might notice his absence from the factory. He had found a clue, and knew that he was on the right track.

They had no certain aim, so they wouldn't make very fast progress; and they wouldn't dare to use any of the small side-streets for even every little child knew that this wasn't exactly advisable in this part of the town. Therefore all Talbot had to do was to go straight on, keeping his eyes wide open. These eyes were restless, and he appeared just as lunatic as he had when he had beaten Sully completely out of his senses. He would find them; of that he was quite certain. Nobody escaped him, nobody fooled him, nobody contradicted him, nobody resisted him and, most importantly of all, nobody denounced him. They would be sorry. Very sorry.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"I'm getting a bit hungry", Daniel said, after they had been on the road for a few hours. That was an understatement, since he actually felt pretty weak already.

"But we don't have anything", Sully said.

"We have the money Holly gave us; we can buy something to eat with it", Daniel suggested, and when he saw Sully's doubtful face, he added: "Come on, Sully, we _have_ to eat something and over there is a store."

"I think we ought to go a little bit further. Just to be safe", Sully said.

Daniel moaned, let his bag drop and simply stopped dead.

"Seriously, you can't believe that anyone in the world cares where we are. I mean, sure, if we walked up and down the street right in front of the orphanage they would probably collect us; or maybe if we kicked a police officer in the shin, it could happen too. But they certainly won't make a big fuss and search for us all over the city. They never do. So, start to relax, will you? We are far enough. We have money, we don't have to steal and so we won't attract any attention."

Sully realized that Daniel was right; what he said sounded reasonable.

"Okay then", he finally agreed, "let's go to the store and buy some food."

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Sicko Wheeler loitered by the roadside, hanging around with his friends. They were waiting. Like every day. They were waiting for anything; for a chance to earn a few cents, or else to swindle them; for a chance to get distracted; to escape their gloomy miserable street lives. They didn't know, and it didn't matter, what sort of chance this might be.

Sometimes Sicko dreamt about his mother driving along the street in a noble coach and recognizing him as her long lost child. Then she would take him home with her to her big house in one of the noble quarters of the town.

They had told him that his mother had been a whore and had given him away briefly after his birth, but what did the people know anyway? Maybe she had been in need and desperate and in the meantime she might have married a rich and loving man, which allowed her to finally take care of the children she had longed for all these years.

This was what Sicko dreamt sometimes and he never said anything about it to his friends, who might have had similar dreams and never talked about them either.

"May I clean your shoes, Mister?" Henry, who was holding a dirty old cloth in his hands, asked an oldish man. The man gave him a suspicious glance and went on without even answering.

"All right, Mister, forget it", Henry called after him, and added some swearwords under his breath, accompanied by a naughty grimace. The boys laughed. If they had no money they at least wanted to have some fun. Henry let a few people pass before he offered his services to the next person. This man, however, didn't seem to notice him at all and pushed him aside roughly, without even looking at him when the boy stepped in his way.

"Hey, you lousy pig!" Henry shouted after the man, enraged, and the others zealously joined in with his vulgar behavior.

Only Sicko remained quiet and stared after the man with narrowed eyes. He knew that guy.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Sully and Daniel had sat down at the corner of a house, eating some bread and an apple each. Earlier they had drunk water from a well.

"We need a drinking bottle", Sully said.

"Yeah", Daniel agreed, "but we don't have _that_ much money."

"No, we don't", Sully said.

"It won't last anyway in the long run", Daniel said.

"No, that's for sure."

"We have to earn something."

"Sometimes there is work for boys at the docks, and I have helped in a shop in the area where we used to live back then, cleaning and such", Sully said, "but we don't wanna stay here, do we?"

"No, we don't", Daniel confirmed, "but just for now."

"That's what my father always said: For now we stay here, and once we have enough money we set off west", Sully said with a gloomy expression. "But that's not the way it works. It's either do it or forget it."

Daniel looked askance at him and didn't know whether he should be worried or rather grin. Sully was the most determined and stubborn boy he had ever met, but if anyone was able to make it, it was him. Daniel decided to grin after all, and his grin developed into loud laughter as he remembered the face of the boy whom Sully had given an impeccable uppercut.

"What are you laughing at?" Sully asked.

Daniel explained, and Sully joined him in laughter. In this moment and for the first time in a good while, they felt carefree and happy, even though they faced a more than uncertain future; it didn't matter, because they were free; free to do whatever they wanted to do.

They didn't pay any attention to their surroundings, and they didn't see the man who approached them with the expression of a carnivore that has finally spotted its prey.

He stopped only a few meters away from them.

"Got you!"


	16. Chapter 16

16.

The boys startled when they saw Talbot standing in front of them. He was breathless and his face was bright red, which was equally the result of the rush and the excitement about his success. He had really found them and their frightened faces alone were already worth the effort. He had wished to give them a little taste of their future right on the spot, but he wasn't stupid enough to hit out at two kids in public, especially when they hadn't done anything worse than sit on the ground and eat something.

"Get up, you two! Come on!" he commanded, forcing the words through his teeth. It was hard for him to keep a grip on himself.

Sully and Daniel snatched their things together and stood up, not taking their eyes off Talbot for a second. Sully considered just running off, but would Daniel dare to follow him? He couldn't leave him behind, alone. And they wouldn't stand a chance anyway. Talbot was simply taller, faster and stronger. It was senseless. He had caught them, and the fact that he had taken it upon himself to pursue and locate them showed how determined he was to settle his score with Sully. And now Daniel would probably have to suffer too.

Talbot stepped up to them and grabbed them both roughly by the arm, one left, the other right, as if he intended to arrest them.

"Let's go!" he said, tugging them around to go back the same way they had come.

"Good day, Mr. Talbot!" Sicko Wheeler said, suddenly standing opposite the warden and his two captives, hands in his trouser pockets, with his legs apart and his chin raised.

Sicko was at least as tall as Mr. Talbot and definitely more robust.

"I said: good day, Mr. Talbot", Sicko repeated calmly. Three of his friends had positioned themselves behind him, just looking around the spot however, seemingly quite disinterested.

"What do you want?" Talbot asked, and couldn't completely conceal the fact that this sturdy teenager and his gang made him very nervous.

Sicko smiled. "Just saying good day, Mr. Talbot", he said almost friendly. "That's what old acquaintances do, don't they? Or do you somehow not recognize me? Maybe I should show you my back, with those scars your belt left behind. Maybe you would recognize _them_." Sicko's voice remained calm and sounded completely harmless, and yet, Sully and Daniel felt Talbot's hands begin to tremble slightly.

"Jeremiah Wheeler!" the boy introduced himself. "Or do you like Sicko Wheeler better?"

Sully's jaw dropped open for he had heard this name and the connected story not long ago. This was the boy who was alleged to be totally crazy, and who had once attacked one of the wardens with a fork; Talbot possibly?

"I remember", said Talbot grudgingly. His constrained fingers dug into the boys arms.

"Let me through, Wheeler", he tried to order, but registered nervously as one of Sicko's buddies now slowly moved forwards, passed Talbot and stopped behind his back. The other two positioned themselves, as if by merely coincidence, to the man's left and right, so that he was now surrounded by the gang.

"So …", Sicko scratched his chin thoughtfully, "do I get you right? You don't wanna talk to me? About old times? Or about what you have in mind to do with these kids? No?"

"Let me through or I'll call the police!" Talbot threatened.

"Police?" Sicko laughed a little and looked around ostentatiously.

"Do you see any policemen here? I don't. You know, in these parts, _we_ are kind of police. We make sure that big bad men don't do any harm to nice little boys. But of course you didn't mean to, right, Mr. Talbot? You just wanted to … pass." Sicko suddenly stepped aside, making an inviting gesture. Talbot was about to move when Sicko grabbed hold of him.

"But, of course, the boys stay here."

"No way, they are coming …", Talbot didn't get any further with his protest as Henry, the one behind him, had put his arm around the man's neck and pressed hard leaving just enough slack that he could still breathe. Talbot let go of Sully and Daniel to free his hands.

Sicko grinned: "Good that we are in agreement." He gave Henry a sign and the boy immediately released Talbot. Sicko pushed Sully and Daniel aside, away from the warden.

"Good bye, Mr. Talbot", he said. Talbot didn't move, and it was quite clear what was going on in his head. He wavered between his relief of obviously getting off that lightly – after all, Henry had briefly shown him that this couldn't be assumed – and his powerless anger about his being forced to let his prey go_. _But he had no choice. Sicko Wheeler hated him with every fiber of his being and he had every reason for it; it came close to a miracle that Talbot was allowed to escape from here with his life and unharmed. So he turned around, slowly and reluctantly, and was about to go when Sicko grabbed him once again.

"What I have totally forgotten – I'm sorry, how stupid of me - of course you have to buy a pass. Costs five dollars!" Sicko blocked his way again and held out his hand.

Talbot's tightly pressed lips trembled with rage, and he stared at Sicko with hate-filled eyes. Sicko held his gaze, completely unmoved, without even batting an eyelid.

"Five … dollars!" Sicko whispered, emphasizing each word in a way that made any further threat needless.

"I have no money with me", Talbot hissed through his teeth.

"You do not want us to search you for it, believe me", Sicko said with the same low voice as before, and approached the man, on whose account he had endured countless maltreatments and quite a while in prison, even closer_. _

"All right", Talbot said quickly and fumbled in the inside of his jacket, "but this is all I have."

He gave Sicko a few notes and coins; in all just over three dollars.

Sicko took the money, moved aside and said, again all friendly: "Thank you very much, Mr. Talbot! Since we are old friends, I'll make you a special deal. And do you know what? I'll even send an escort with you, because sometimes some evil lowlifes hang around this area. Have a nice day." Sicko raised his hand in greeting and indicated to his friends with a nod to 'accompany' Talbot. Henry grinned, put his arm around Talbot's shoulder and compelled him to go. The other two boys followed and they too exchanged meaningful looks with Sicko.

"What are they up to?" Sully asked as he gazed after the group around Talbot with mixed feelings.

"Oh, well, if I only knew", Sicko answered with a broad grin. Then he turned to Sully and Daniel, saw their concerned faces and said: "Don't worry; they won't hurt him; … at least, I don't think so." He laughed again. Sully and Daniel looked at each other; the shock left them and their boundless relief, which outweighed all worries about Talbot's well-being by far, made them finally join in Sicko's laughter.

"I don't think I'll ever forget the look on Talbot's face, when he heard that he had to buy a pass", Daniel gasped.

All of a sudden Sicko's laughter died. His eyes were fixed on the rolled up blanket under Daniel's arm.

"Where did you get that quilt?" he asked tonelessly.

"What?" Daniel asked back in surprise.

Sicko took the blanket and unfolded it partially.

"Where did you get this?" he repeated. His eyes roamed over the pattern and his fingers felt the fabric.

"Holly from the orphanage gave it to us; she helped us to run away", Sully explained.

"Holly?" Sicko asked. "Holly is still there?"

"Yes", confirmed Sully. "She works there."

"She's still there? She has been there all the time?" Sicko knelt down, staring at the quil,t and the truth slowly dawned upon the boys.

"She said she had a brother", Sully said cautiously. "Is … is that you?"

Sicko didn't say a word, but nodded. He held the quilt tightly. Sully put his hand in his trouser pocket and pulled out the money Holly had given them. He held it out to Sicko and said: "This is from Holly. She saved it for you, but she said she would probably never see you again. I think she believes you are dead.

Sicko looked at him incredulously.

"It's yours", Sully said.

Sicko cast a short glance at the money in Sully's hand, then he got up and furled the quilt.

"When our mother took us to the orphanage, this was the only thing she gave us. That's what Holly told me anyway; but since she was only two years old herself then, I have no idea whether she could really remember or whether someone else told her." He gave Daniel the blanket back.

"Holly was always good and obedient, but not me. As soon as I was old enough to work in the factory I was under Talbot's thumb. I don't know what he did to _you_, but he literally flayed _me_ alive." Sicko lifted his shirt a little and they saw countless scars on the exposed part of his back.

"One day I had enough and I grabbed a fork. Well, I bet this story is still a classic at the orphanage today. Anyhow, I went to jail for that, but at least Talbot still has a keepsake of me." He grinned again, but this time it was more like a bitter grimace.

"I've never seen Holly again since then. Of course I thought she was long gone. Somewhere. And I had no idea where I should have started to search for her."

"Miss Perkins kept her", Daniel said. "Maybe she wanted to make something right."

Sicko shrugged. "Yeah. Maybe. The good old coward Miss Perkins."

"You can keep the money", he said then. "Holly gave it to you, so I will certainly not take it away. Besides…", the roguish expression returned to his eyes, "I still have the generous donation from Mr. Talbot."

"What will you do now?" Sully asked. "I mean … concerning Holly. I tried to persuade her to come with us, but …"

"I'm sure she's better off inside the orphanage than outside", Sicko said, sounding resigned.

"No, she's not", Sully contradicted decidedly.

Sicko gazed at him, and after a while he nodded.

"What are you two going to do anyway?" he suddenly asked.

"We're going west", Sully said.

Sicko snorted with laughter: "What?" But the two boys just looked at him with motionless faces, and then he knew that they were completely serious. He shook his head in disbelief. **"**West, huh?"

"Right, west"**,** Sully confirmed.

"Well, maybe I'll go and get Holly and we'll go west, too", Sicko said and again he was wearing that special grin that seemed to question everything he said.

"Yes, do that", Sully said, and he was very serious.

"So, you're off now?" Sicko asked. "Just like that?"

"Sure", Daniel said, "just like that."

"Well, then … good luck!" Sicko said and this time some kind of admiration was in his voice.

They shook hands as a goodbye and parted.

"Hey!" Sicko suddenly called after them. Sully and Daniel turned around.

"I still don't know your names."

"My name is Daniel Simon, and this is Sully", Daniel answered.

"Sully?" asked Sicko. "Just Sully?"

Sully laughed: "Yep. Just Sully."

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

_**THE END**_


End file.
